Yumeiro Patissiere Remix
by lovecartoonsandanime
Summary: This is about a non cry baby, naïve and klutz Amano Ichigo, who attends St. Marie Academy to become a patissiere like her grandmother before her.
1. I want to become a patissiere

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>I'm going to be a Pâtissière<strong>

One morning, a fourteen year old girl named Ichigo Amano was getting ready to go out with her family. Her little sister Natsume Amano had a piano recital today and her, her mother and her father were going to watch Natsume at the recital together. But Ichigo didn't really want to go. The truth is she didn't really have good relationships with her mother and sister. Her mother Kyouko was a pianist as well as a piano teacher and Natsume had inherited her piano talents. Ichigo on the other hand didn't. She had tried to learn how to play the piano in the past, but she didn't really have the talent for that. So her mother had favoured Natsume over Ichigo and Ichigo felt neglected by them. Her father Shigeru Amano was an artist and Ichigo did have good artist skills, but again Natsume had more talent with art than she did. Ichigo did have a good relationship with her dad, but she felt like nothing to both her parents compared to Natsume. In the past, Ichigo had tried to find a talent for something like ballet and swimming, but they didn't turn out to be her talent, so Ichigo gave up on trying being as talented as Natsume.

Even though Ichigo didn't have the same music and art talent as her parents, there was one talent that she did have. Ichigo was talented of making sweets, like cakes, biscuits and pastries and other desserts. She had inherited this talent from her grandmother Michiko Amano. Ichigo loved her grandmother very much and always thought that she was the only one that cared about her. Michiko was a patissiere and owned a shop in the countryside. Ichigo always visited her grandmother a lot when she was a little girl, and Michiko taught her everything about being a patissiere. It was thanks to her that Ichigo became talented of making sweets.

The sad thing was Michiko died two years ago and Ichigo missed her very much. But Ichigo never stopped making sweets. Whenever her family weren't around, she would practice making sweets in the kitchen at home and would also practice at school. She even continued making sweets at her grandmother's shop. Her uncle Hikaru Amano, who was a patissier, ran the shop now, and Ichigo liked to help him with making sweets for the shop. She had many recipe books of making sweet things as pies, biscuits, puddings and cakes. Ichigo never revealed her talents for making sweets to her parents and sister, because she believed that it wouldn't make a difference with the relationship between her and her mother and sister.

Soon it was time to go to Natsume's piano recital. Ichigo was dressed in a pretty, but plain dress, with shoes and tied her hair in pigtails. When she got down stairs her family was already waiting for her. "Why are you wearing something a bit plain?" asked Natsume. "Since I'm in the audience, I don't need to dress up smartly for this recital" said Ichigo. "Okay everyone it's time to go now" said Kyouko. Soon everyone was in the car and on the way to Natsume's piano recital. Shigeru was driving and Kyouko was saying stuff like they mustn't be late and telling Natsume to be ready. It was like this all the time; Kyouko was a very fussy woman and always wanted things to be right.

Ichigo was looking boringly outside the car window. 'I should have pretended to have a cold and stay home,' she thought 'but mother would be mad with me if I did'. Soon they reached the concert hall, where the recital was taking place. Before they went into the concert hall, Ichigo noticed that Natsume was feeling a bit nervous. Even though Natsume had a real talent for the piano, there were times when she would feel nervous. Ichigo placed a hand on her sister's shoulders. "There is no need to be nervous," she said "you have practiced long and hard for this and you have participated in many competitions before this. Just give it all your got". Ichigo may not have a good relationship with her sister, but she was there to give her comfort. Shigeru saw what just happened and was happy that Ichigo was giving her sister encouragement.

Soon the competition had started and it was now Natsume's turn. Natsume had lost her nervousness and was now calmly playing the piano. Ichigo was impressed with Natsume's talent but still felt depressed about not having the same talent as her. In her mind she felt like leaving the leaving the hall right now. Her dad was looking sadly at her. He knew that Ichigo always felt left out in her family because she didn't have the same music and art skill as him and his wife, but he didn't know what to do for her.

Later that day, the competition was over and Natsume had won 1st place. Now she was having her picture taken, holding her trophy, and with her parents. While that was going on, Ichigo snuck out of the concert hall. She didn't really want to watch Natsume getting a lot of praise and attention. This made her miss her grandmother very much. 'I wish you were still here grandma,' she thought in her mind 'you always paid attention to me, you always cared for me and you always gave me more love than mum has ever given me'. This was true; Ichigo had always been Michiko's favourite granddaughter and she was more like a mother to Ichigo. With her grandmother dead, Ichigo thought she could never again be as happy as she was when her grandmother was still alive.

Suddenly Ichigo noticed that there was a sweets festival in a shopping centre and headed over there at once. "It's a good thing that I always take my wallet with me, whenever I'm out," she said to herself "so I can eat cake and other sweets whenever I want". Apart from making cakes and other sweets, Ichigo also loved to eat them; eating them always made her cheerful whenever she was depressed and it made her forget about her troubles for a while. Ichigo checked to see if her purse was in her pocket and it was. She even had a small notebook and pencil with her. The small notebook and pencil were used for Ichigo to write down whatever sweets she had, so she would never forget them.

Ichigo picked up many different cakes to try, paid for them and sat down at a table to try them out. Her family turned up to the sweets festival too to celebrate Natsume's victory. Natsume went over to Ichigo and thanked her for giving her encouragement. "You're welcome" said Ichigo. Just then she noticed something about one of the cakes she just tasted. 'This taste is nearly the same as grandma's' she thought. Ichigo had an amazing sense of taste and she never forgot the taste of sweets that she's had in the past.

Ichigo got off from her table and went to look for the table, where she had picked up the cake. Just then a man's voice asked if there was something wrong with his cake. This man had blonde hair and blue eyes and seemed to be a foreigner. Ichigo said to the man that the cake tasted similar to a cake that her grandma once baked for her. Just then she realised that she said something rude and apologized to the man at once. "Was your grandma a patissiere?" asked the man. "Yes sir," said Ichigo "she owned a cake shop in the countryside and she taught me about making cakes and other sweets. But she passed away two years ago, and now my uncle is running the shop. But I help him and learn from him sometimes as well". The man felt sorry for Ichigo for losing her grandma. "Forgive my curiosity, but did your grandma used to study in Paris when she was younger?" he asked. "Actually she did," said Ichigo "she used to tell me about her life studying in a culinary school in Paris. I think it was called St Marie Academy". "I see," said the man "was her name Michiko?" "Yes, but how did you know that?" asked Ichigo. The man said to Ichigo that he had heard about Michiko being a very talented patissiere and that she made many wonderful cakes in the past. Ichigo was amazed by that and told the man her name. The man introduced himself as Henri Lucas and told Ichigo that his great-grandmother, Marie Lucas, was the founder of the St Marie Academy. "To be able to taste the similarity from my cake and Michiko's cake from one bite is outstanding, you have amazing taste buds". Ichigo couldn't believe that she had just been praised; she had never been praised by anyone before because of her lack of talents. Henri asked Ichigo to have the honour of trying his new cake and Ichigo accepted.

Ichigo watched carefully as Henri prepared his new cake. He placed some pink cream on some strawberry moose, added a strawberry on top and then added some white chocolate, in shape of wings, on the top as well. Ichigo thought it was a beautiful cake and when she tried it the taste was more beautiful. "This cake has the taste of a girl's first love;" she said "I can see myself falling in love for the first time with this cake". "I had the image of a girl's love in my mind while making this cake," said Henri "Ichigo you have a wonderful sense of taste and feelings. I wish for you to attend St Marie Academy and learn to become a patissiere". Ichigo stared at Henri and his cake, and then she thought of all the times that she had made sweets with her grandma and uncle. Then she remembered that her childhood wish was to become a patissiere like her grandma. "I will attend St. Marie Academy," she said "I want to become a patissiere like grandma". Henri was happy that Ichigo accepted the offer and handed her a guide of the St. Marie Academy School that was in Nijigaoka in Japan. "I look forward to teaching you at the school Ichigo" he said. He explained that he was also a teacher at the school.

When Ichigo and her family went home, Ichigo told everyone about her meeting with Henri Lucas and her decision to transfer to St. Marie Academy in Nijigaoka. Natsume thought that the academy looked wonderful and Kyouko thought it would be a good idea for Ichigo because she always knew that Ichigo loved sweets like her grandma. Shigeru on the other hand was against the idea; he was one of those dads who didn't like having his own children growing up and leaving home. He also didn't believe that Ichigo was capable of living in a boarding school. "I will not let you transfer" he said. Ichigo didn't like her dad's words and spoke up. "I want to be a patissiere like grandma," she said "I want to make cakes that would bring people smiles, like grandma made cakes for me whenever I felt sad. Ever since I was a little girl, I learnt how to make cakes and other sweets thanks to grandma and uncle Hikaru. Even after grandma died I still learnt how to make cakes; I even practiced making them at school and here at home. So please let me transfer to St. Marie Academy". Her family were surprised by what Ichigo just told them; of course they never knew that Ichigo had practiced making sweets because she never told them. "Ichigo you may go," said her mother "I know very well that you have been feeling lonely because I have always paid so much attention to Natsume". "You are right about that mum," said Ichigo, bluntly, "for as long as I can remember I always felt that you cared more about Natsume because she has talent for the piano and I don't. And I always felt that grandma was more of a mother to me more than you, and even though she's now gone she is still like a mother to me". Ichigo had decided to tell about her feelings. Kyouko went up to Ichigo and hugged her. "I'm sorry Ichigo," she said, tearfully and feeling regret what how she's treated Ichigo, "I'm happy to know that you have found your dream. So you go to this culinary school and become a patissier like Michiko". Shigeru still didn't like the idea, but he agreed because he remembered the times when Ichigo was happy with his mum and when they made cakes together. Ichigo became happy to have her parent's permission to attend St. Marie Academy.

That night, Ichigo looked at a photograph of her and her grandma together. "Grandma, I'm going to attend St. Marie Academy and become a patissiere like you" she said.

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><p>I hope you enjoy this new story of mine.<p> 


	2. The legendary sweets spirits?

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The legendary sweets spirits?<strong>

A few days after meeting Henri Lucas, Ichigo arrived at the St. Marie Academy in Nijigaoka. The boarding school looked magnificent; it was huge and it looked more like a castle. Ichigo had seen the pictures in the school guide, but it looked more wonderful to her with seeing it for real. The school also had a huge school ground and a very big garden. "Even though I've only been here for a few minutes, I already like it here," Ichigo said to herself "it's a pity though that Henri-sensei isn't here though". Henri Lucas had to go back to the St Marie Academy in Paris for business, so he wouldn't be teaching in the school in Japan. "Never mind he will probably come back here again, after he's done with his business in Paris".

Just then Ichigo saw a big statue in the middle of the school grounds. The statue looked like a fairy queen. "What statue is this?" Ichigo asked herself. She was just about to look it up in the school guide, when suddenly a girl her age answered her question. "That is the queen of the sweets spirits," she said "there's a story that says the sweets spirits are spirits that are said to visit this school and watch the patissiers and patissieres here at work". Ichigo was amazed by the story. The girl introduced herself as Rumi Katou and explained that she was Ichigo's roommate. "I'll lead you to your dorm room". Ichigo looked at the statue one more time and followed Rumi to the girl's dorm room.

The girl's dorm was the size of a very big house, and the rooms turned out to be big as well. "All the luggage from your home is already here," said Rumi "I'll help you sort it out this evening". "Thanks' Rumi" said Ichigo. She could already see that she had a good friend in Rumi. Just then the school bell ran and it was time to head over for classes. Rumi had to go at once to help prepare the ingredients for the cooking classes, so Ichigo was left alone to find the classrooms.

As the school was very big, Ichigo had no idea how to get to the classroom. "I better ask someone where the classrooms are, otherwise I will be late" she said. Suddenly a bunch of roses appeared in front of her. "Nice to meet you Ichigo Amano" said a voice. A boy, with green hair, was standing next to her and he was holding the bunch of roses. "I'm Satsuki Hanabusa," said the boy "and you and I are in the same class together". He gave her the roses as a welcome present. Ichigo accepted the roses and thanked Satsuki. 'He's a nice boy' she thought. When she smelt the roses, she realised that the roses were made from hard candy. Satsuki explained to Ichigo that he had grown up with roses all his life and that he liked to make sweets based on roses. "I understand that actually," said Ichigo "I grew up with strawberries all my life, so I like making sweets with strawberries". Her grandmother grew strawberries in her garden and Ichigo loved it very much.

Satsuki led the way to the classroom. Along the way Ichigo met Satsuki's friends. They were all boys and their names were Sennosuke Andou and Makato Kashino. Sennosuke Andou was a blue-grey haired boy with glasses and he was also very nice. Makato Kashino, a blonde haired boy, turned out to be a boy who had a rude personality and he looked so serious. Ichigo couldn't understand how two nice boys like Satsuki and Sennosuke could be friends with a rude guy like Makato. She noticed that Makato was carrying a sculptor made out of chocolate and asked him if he made it. "If you want to know, yes I did" said Makato. 'Then he is a chocolate making expert' thought Ichigo. Ichigo learnt that Satsuki specialised in candy sculptures, Makoto specialised in chocolate and Sennosuke specialised in Japanese sweets. She thought that they must be real experts in making sweets. 'I'll need to do my best of trying to be as good as them' she thought.

Soon they reached their classroom and Ichigo introduced herself to the other students. Some students walked up to Ichigo. "You're lucky to have entered this classroom with the sweets princes" said one of the girls. "Sweets princes?" asked Ichigo. The girls explained to her that Sennosuke, Satsuki and Makato were called the sweets princes because they were top of the class in making sweets. 'Amazing,' thought Ichigo 'so that means they must be talented patissiers. But this won't scare me because I have practiced making sweets for a long time'.

Later on it was time for a cooking class and Ichigo was wearing a cooking uniform. "It's been a while since I last wore clothes that pastry chefs wear" she said. The last time she wore one was when she was last at her uncle's shop. The teacher of the class was a woman named Ameya-sensei and Ichigo introduced herself to her. "Amano you are in group A with the sweets princes" she said. Ichigo and everyone else were surprised that she was placed in the highest group. "Please excuse me sensei, but there must be a mistake," she said "I can't be in the top group surely". "Henri-sensei recommended that you shall be in group A" said Ameya-sensei. Ichigo again was surprised by that, but if Henri-sensei recommended it then there was no point in arguing about it now. 'I'll just do what he says, but I'll probably be switched to another group later' she thought.

Now it was time to cook. Today's lesson was to make a mille crepe; a mille crepe was a french cake made with 20 layers of crepes, with a filling of pastry cream between the crepes. Ichigo was happy with this because she made mille crepes many times before, mainly at home when her parents weren't around. She calmly made the crepe batter with flour, eggs, butter, milk and sugar, and then she made the cream filling and cut up some strawberries. She was also making sure to smile while making everything; she wanted to make sweets to make people smile, and to do that she had to have a happy heart while working. If she didn't then the sweets wouldn't turn out happy. Unbeknown to her, she was being watched by the other students; they wanted to know how capable she was with making sweets. The sweets princes were also curious about how she was with making sweets and watched her with interest. After mixing the batter and cream, she calmly cooked the 20 crepes with ease, then spread the cream and places strawberry pieces between the layers, and then finally her strawberry mille crepe was finished. Ameya-sensei came over to inspect it. "You made this very well Amano on your first day," she said "I take it you've practiced making this before?" "Yes sensei, I've practiced this many times before" answered Ichigo.

Makato tried a bit of Ichigo's mille crepe. "I can tell from this taste that you have indeed practiced before," he said "but have you practiced making other sweets apart from this before?" Ichigo didn't like Makato's attitude; he was acting like he was the judge of this school, just because he was in the top group. "If you must know yes" she said. She was not going to let him put her down. "I have practiced making sweets ever since I was five years old. And I learnt how to make sweets from an actual patissier and patissiere thank you very much. Besides if I never practiced making sweets, then I wouldn't have had the desire to become a patissiere would I?" Ichigo and Makato looked at each other with cross faces; it looked like a showdown between them was going to happen any second now. The students watched with interest; no one had ever stood up to Makato like that before. "Okay that's enough now," said Ameya-sensei "Kashino and Amano, no more arguments, and everyone tidy up now".

That evening at dinner, Ichigo was sitting at a table with Rumi and the other students in group C. Even though Ichigo had only been at the school for a few hours, she had already made friends. "Say Ichigo who was that taught you how to make sweets?" asked a girl named Kana Koizumi. Ichigo explained about her grandma and uncle Hikaru teaching her how to make cakes. "Wow that's nice," said Rumi "who else taught you?" "I also learnt some things at my last school and I also taught myself by practicing at home and school". Her friends were amazed. "I still don't see why I'm in the top group," said Ichigo "I mean I know I've practiced a lot, but I'm nowhere near at the sweets princes' level". "Don't you worry Ichigo," said Rumi "I believe that you will be as great as a patissiere. Why you might become a sweets princess". Ichigo and the others laughed at Rumi's joke. The sweet princes were watching over Ichigo. "I feel that Ichigo is going to do great here" said Satsuki. "Yes me too," said Sennosuke "you should have faith in her Makato". "Yeah, I mean she has practiced making sweets before and she's different from other girls" said Satsuki. Makato just huffed. The truth is he was one those types of boys, who didn't believe in girls and their strengths.

That night, when everyone was asleep, Ichigo couldn't sleep. She was still anxious about being in a group with the top students. To calm herself, she walked out of the dorms and went to the kitchen to make something sweet to eat. Eating sweets always calmed her nerves. She decided to make the mille crepe she made in class. "I still say that Henri-sensei has made a mistake about placing me in group A," she said "I feel I should be in a lower group. But I'm not letting that put me off. My wish is to become a patissiere like my grandma and I am going to make that wish come true no matter what". "That's the spirit Ichigo" said a voice.

The voice came from a little girl fairy standing on the table, holding a spoon. "Who are you?" gasped Ichigo. "My name is Vanilla, a sweets spirits" said the fairy. "So you're a sweets spirit," said Ichigo "but what are sweets spirits?" "We are little winged spirits living in the sweets kingdom, which is ruled over by our queen," Vanilla explained "and we are born to make delicious sweets. We also come here to search for a human partner in the human world, and we spirits work with the humans make sweets together. And now I have found my partner, which is you Ichigo". "What?" gasped Ichigo "why me?" "Because I can sense you are a girl with a kind happy heart," said Vanilla "and you also love sweets and have a strong determination to never give up on your dream to become a patissiere". "Do you have a dream too Vanilla?" asked Ichigo. "Yes I do," said Vanilla "my dream is to become a royal patissiere in the sweets kingdom". Ichigo could see that Vanilla was like her. "Want to make the strawberry mille crepe with me?" she asked. "Of course, that's why I'm here" said Vanilla.

Together Vanilla and Ichigo worked together to make the strawberry mille crepe. Vanilla watched Ichigo carefully while she made the crepes and everything else. "I watched you ever since you entered the school and I saw you making the mille crepe in class" said Vanilla. "Did you also hear about when I told Kashino about me learning to make sweets ever since I was a little girl?" asked Ichigo. "Yes I did," said Vanilla "I was also impressed with how you stood up to him". "Let me tell you something Vanilla," said Ichigo "I hate those who act like they are the top of everything. I mean I know that Kashino is the top of the lass, but he still didn't have to look down on me like I'm a lowly peasant". "Tell me about it," said Vanilla "I have a rival who also acts like she knows everything". After the mille crepe was finished, Vanilla waved her spoon over it, and then a card appeared and then the card went through the painting of the sweets spirits queen that hung in the kitchen. "What was that?" asked Ichigo. Vanilla explained that after a human partner makes new sweets, the sweets change into a recipe card and is given to the sweets spirits queen. "And the more cards a spirit gives the queen, the more points they earn to get the chance of becoming a royal courts patissiere". "I see," said Ichigo "well Vanilla, let's pursue our dreams together". She and Vanilla shook hands with each other and then they ate the mille crepe together.

Ichigo felt much better after having the mille crepe, and with Vanilla on her side, she felt she would become a great patissiere in the future.

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><p>Ichigo should have practiced making sweets with her grandma and uncle in the past.<p> 


	3. The rose sweets prince

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The rose sweets prince<strong>

Ichigo was starting to enjoy her new school life at St Marie Academy; she made some new friends and was happy to learn more about making sweets. The cooking lessons were hard of course; but even Ichigo knew that becoming a patissiere was never an easy task. Her grandma use to tell her about all the difficulties she went through before she became a patissiere. But Ichigo wasn't going to let anything stand in her way of becoming a patissiere.

One day, Ichigo was outside in the school gardens reading a cooking book. It was about how to make choux pastry and how to make sweets with choux pastry like éclairs, choux buns and profiteroles. The class were going to have a test about making choux buns tomorrow and Ichigo wanted to study about the topic at once. "Have you not made choux pastry before Ichigo?" asked Vanilla, who was also looking at the book. "Yes I've made it before, but not for a long time," Ichigo admitted "so I'll need to practice making choux buns later on". "I can help you if you like" said a voice from near the rose bushes.

The voice belonged to Satsuki. "Hanabusa-kun, what are you doing here?" asked Ichigo. "I'm tending to the roses around here" said Satsuki. Ichigo called Satsuki, Sennosuke and Makato by their surnames and the boys called Ichigo by her last name. "Do excuse me for being curious," said Ichigo "but why are you so fascinated with roses? I mean I know you told me that you grew up with roses, but the way you handle roses and make sweets based on them is like roses are the love of your life". "Well the truth is," said Satsuki "the reason I like roses is because of my dad. My dad loved to grow and tend to roses and it's because I loved my dad so much that I love roses". "Is your dad still growing roses?" asked Ichigo. "I'm afraid not," said Satsuki "the truth is he passed away a few years ago". "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry like that" said Ichigo. "No it's okay," said Satsuki "being surrounded by roses and making sweets based on roses makes me believe that my dad is still with me even though he's in heaven". "I understand," said Ichigo "my grandma is in heaven too, but I feel she's watching over me whenever I make sweets".

Satsuki showed Ichigo all the rose bushes in the school grounds. There were red roses, white roses and pink roses and they all looked beautiful. Satsuki picked a pink rose and handed it to Ichigo. "A pretty girl like you Amano-chan deserves this rose" he said. "I thank you I guess Hanabusa-kun" said Ichigo. Ichigo could tell that Satsuki was one of the pretty boys who loved to flirt with girls.

After Satsuki showed Ichigo the rose bushes, he started to show her how to cook with choux pastry in the cooking room. To make the choux pastry, Ichigo placed some cut up square bits of butter and some cold water into a saucepan and placed it on a medium heat on the hob. While the butter melted, Ichigo sieved some flour into the bowl and added some sugar to it. After the butter melted and the water started to boil a bit, Ichigo turned off the heat, placed the saucepan on a cool rack and beat the flour and sugar together with the butter and water. The mixture turned into dough, and then Ichigo added some beaten egg yolks to dough and stirred them together until the dough turned into a smooth glossy paste. "Now we add the paste to the piping bag" said Satsuki, handing her a piping bag. Ichigo placed the paste into the piping bag and piped the choux pastry mixture onto a non-stick baking papered tin, and then placed them in the pre-heated oven. While the pastry was baking, Ichigo got the cream ready to go into the middle and got some icing sugar ready to dust on top. Once the choux pastry was baked, Ichigo cut a small hole into each pastry bun and then put them back into the oven for another few minutes. After the pastry was cooked and cooled again, Ichigo piped the cream into the buns and then dusted icing sugar onto the top.

Ichigo's choux buns turned out to be successful and tasted delicious. "You did very well Amano-chan" said Satsuki. "Thanks to your help Hanabusa-kun," said Ichigo, gratefully, "and now I feel ready for tomorrow". Ichigo and Satsuki shook hands with each other as proof as friendship. "I've got to say Amano-chan," said Satsuki "you certainly understand well that making sweets takes practice and a lot of concentration". "Well the truth is I had been told all my life that you always have to work hard to be whatever you want to be, whether you want to be a musician, an artist, a patissiere etc." said Ichigo "so I intend to work hard to be a patissiere like my grandma". Satsuki understood.

The next day came and it was time to make choux buns in cooking class. Ichigo calmly made the choux pastry, like how she did yesterday, and then for the filling she filled the buns with cream and some pieces of cut up strawberries; she made strawberry choux buns with icing sugar on top. "Those are great Ichigo" said Vanilla. Vanilla made a recipe card of the strawberry choux buns and sent it to the queen.

Ichigo's choux buns were given good marks and they became popular with Ichigo's friends. Satsuki and Sennosuke liked Ichigo's choux buns too. Makato tried one as well. "They're not bad" he said bluntly. Ichigo already knew what Makato's attitude was like, so she just said thank you. Ichigo thought that today was a good day, because she had found a good friend in Satsuki Hanabusa.

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><p>Sorry this one is a short chapter, but I try to do the best I can<strong>.<strong>


	4. I hate stupid cakes

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>I hate these stupid cakes<strong>

St Marie Academy had a sweets shop called Salon de Marie. The Salon de Marie was run by the high school council and only high school students of the academy were allowed to work there. Not only did students and teachers visit the shop for sweets and drinks, but people from anywhere else liked to go to the shop too.

Ichigo and the sweets prince were visiting the shop and Ichigo admired it very much. "I take the high school students who work here have to be very talented right?" asked Ichigo. "Oh yes," said Sennosuke "the high school council, who runs the shop, show no mercy if you made a mistake while working here". "Wow, then if I do have the chance to work here in the future, then I better be careful" said Ichigo. "You do realise of course that working in a sweets shop isn't easy" said Makato. "Yes I do know that Kashino," said Ichigo "and I'll have you know I helped my grandma with her shop every summer when she was alive, and I helped uncle Hikaru, who runs the shop now, ever since grandma died".

Just then Sennosuke had a thought. "I'm going to help my family with my family's shop this weekend," he said "why don't all of you come to help out too?" "Can I really?" asked Ichigo. "Of course, my family won't mind the extra hands" said Sennosuke. So Ichigo, Makato and Satsuki all agreed to go with Sennosuke to his family's shop at the weekend.

That weekend Ichigo and the sweets princes went to Sennosuke's house. Sennosuke introduced Ichigo to his mother, father and grandfather and they were happy to meet her. They were also delighted that Sennosuke's friends came to help out in the shop. Ichigo also found out that Sennosuke had four younger siblings; one brother and three sisters, so Sennosuke had quite a big family.

Soon Ichigo and the sweets princes were now working in the shop. Ichigo became a waitress and was now taking orders and giving the customers their orders. "You seem good at this Ichigo" Vanilla said to her. "I've had tons of practice at my grandma's shop" replied Ichigo. The Sennosuke and Satsuki were impressed with Ichigo's work as well. "Amano-san is quite good at this" said Sennosuke. "I agree, and she's having no trouble at all" said Satsuki. Makato was watching Ichigo at work and seemed to be a little bit impressed as well.

At break time, Sennosuke served tea and sweets for everyone. "You seemed to know what you were doing as a waitress Amano" said Makato. "I didn't make it up you know when I said that I've served customers in a shop before, thank you Kashino" said Ichigo. "I think you did really well Amano-san" said Sennosuke. Sennosuke's three sisters liked Ichigo and started calling her Onee-chan (which meant older sister). But there was one of Sennosuke's siblings who didn't like Ichigo; it was Sennosuke's brother Ichita Andou.

Ichita Andou was a bratty, bossy and rude tempered type of kid. Not only did he not like Ichigo, but he didn't like Makato and Satsuki either. He kept on ordering them to leave and even gave them rude nicknames. Ichigo was called cake pig, Satsuki was called narcissist and Makato was called Marbodofu. Sennosuke was not happy with Ichita's behaviour. The truth is Ichita had been like that ever since he first attended St Marie Academy. "Ichita and I were really close to each other all the time," Sennosuke explained "but when I decided to become a patissier, Ichita's behaviour towards me changed". Ichigo thought it was strange that Ichita was behaving like that; Sennosuke's mother, father, grandfather and sisters didn't mind him being a patissier. Ichigo had the feeling that something was up. "Andou-kun what made you to decide to become a patissier?" she asked. Sennosuke explained that when he and Makato were young, he tried a cake for the first time when it was Makato's birthday. Sennosuke had never tried cakes before because he had only eaten Japanese sweets. "The cake was so delicious that I wanted to eat more, so I decided to learn to make cakes, using our bean red paste and our other ingredients for making Japanese sweets. After I made my first cake, I decided to become a patissier and make both Japanese and western sweets and set up my own store near to my family's store". "I see that's a good dream" said Ichigo.

That evening, when the shop closed for the night, Ichigo decided to have a talk with Ichita. "You shouldn't poke your nose into other people's business Ichigo" said Vanilla. "I know that Vanilla," said Ichigo "but I have a feeling that there is a reason why Ichita hates his brother being a patissier and cakes. And I wish to find out what it is". Ichigo found Ichita in the kitchen and he was boiling azuki beans in the pot. "I take it you also help round in the shop?" Ichigo asked Ichita. "Of course," Ichita answered rudely "grandpa has bad eyesight so I sort out the beans from the good and bad and then boil the beans into paste". "I see," said Ichigo "you're a good helper Ichita". Ichita blushed a bit at that comment. "Hey Ichita-kun, why do you hate cakes?" asked Ichigo "and why do you hate your brother being a patissier? I mean no one else in the family minds Andou-kun being a patissier". Ichita stopped stirring, turned off the heat and led Ichigo out of the kitchen. "I don't want anyone else to hear what I'm about to tell you" he said.

Ichita led Ichigo to the hallway of the house. "I hate cakes because they took Sennosuke away from me" he said. He explained that he and Sennosuke helped out in the shop all the time together and Sennosuke taught him everything he knew now. "It was also my dream to take over this shop one day with my brother alongside me. But since my brother is studying to be a patissier, my dream is now ruined and he chooses cakes over me". Ichita started to cry. 'I get it now,' thought Ichigo 'Ichita-kun doesn't really understand Andou-kun's dreams and feelings'. Ichigo rubbed Ichita's head. "That is not true Ichita-kun," she said "Andou-kun's desire to be a patissier is a lot different than you think. And you will find a new dream like Andou-kun did". Ichita just stared at Ichigo.

Ichigo had a word with Sennosuke, Makato and Satsuki and told them about how Ichita had been feeling all this time. "I see," said Makato "so Ichita has been feeling lonely because his parents spend more time on the store and younger siblings than him". "I understand how Ichita feels" said Ichigo. She told the boys about how her mother always ignored her and paid more attention to Natsume because of her talents for the piano. "So Ichita feels like he is being ignored because I left for St Marie Academy," said Sennosuke "I feel terrible now". Just then Ichigo got an idea. "Andou-kun do you remember the cake that you first made when you were younger?" she asked. "Yes I do," said Sennosuke "I was Ichita's age when I made it". "Then you should make that cake for Ichita," said Ichigo "if you do that, then Ichita will understand your feelings about being a patissier". Sennosuke and the others thought that it was a great idea.

Together, Ichigo, Sennosuke, Satsuki and Makato got to work on making the cake. The cake they were making was a swiss cake roll, but it was a matcha (green tea) swiss roll with an anko filling. Ichigo presented the red bean paste, Ichita made earlier, to Sennosuke. "I'm sure this will make Ichita-kun understand more" she said. Sennosuke agreed and he placed the bean paste in the middle, wrapped up the cake roll, and then the cake was done. Once the cake was down, Ichigo and the boys got the table and plates ready. Vanilla made a recipe card of the matcha swiss roll cake and sent it to the queen. "I know Ichigo didn't make it," she said "but it's good to show it to the queen".

Ichigo brought Ichita to the dining area, where everyone else was. Sennosuke presented the cake to everyone. "I made this for you to eat Ichita" said Sennosuke. Ichigo explained to Ichita that the cake will tell him what Sennosuke's feelings are. Ichita felt reluctant to try the cake, but since everyone else was trying it he tried the cake at once. "This cake tastes of green tea and red bean paste" said Ichita. Ichita and the rest of the Andou family liked the cake very much. Sennosuke explained to his family of his dream of owning a shop, with Japanese and western sweets, near their shop. "I'm sorry that I made you worry Ichita, but I will always be making Japanese sweets as a patissier". Ichita ran into his brother's arms at once and apologized for acting selfish. Ichigo was happy to know that Ichita now understood Sennosuke's feelings.

That night, it was time for Ichigo and the sweets prince to go back to St Marie Academy. Sennosuke's family thanked them for all their help and said goodbye to them. Before they did leave, Ichita went up to Ichigo. "Thank you Onee-san," he said, blushingly, "I have now thought of a new dream. I now wish to continue running my family's shop when my father and grandfather can't do it anymore". "Good for you Ichita-kun" said Ichigo. Then Ichigo and the sweets princes went home. "Thank you for helping me reconcile with my brother Amano-san" said Sennosuke. "My pleasure Andou-kun" said Ichigo. Ichigo felt that her friendship with Sennosuke Andou was now getting strong.

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><p>I don't think Ichigo ever told the sweets princes on screen about her mother's negligence of her, so I decided to have her tell them now. You would think that Ichigo would have learnt of how to help in a shop because of her grandmother's shop.<p> 


	5. Angel? Devil? Spirit?

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Angel? Devil? Spirit?<strong>

Today, the students were studying on how to make chocolate in cooking class. There was going to be a chocolate sweets test tomorrow. Ichigo was looking through one of her note books; Ichigo had learnt how to make chocolate before at school and wrote notes to remember how to make chocolate. Right now she was checking through with what she had to do when melting chocolate in a bowl, over a steaming pan. Makato was watching Ichigo. "Hey Amano," he said "what are you doing?" "Looking through my notes," said Ichigo "I want to make sure what I'm doing before I start making my chocolate". "You should really be able how to cook with chocolate, without notes" said Makato. "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you chocolate boy," said Ichigo "but I haven't made chocolate for a while, which is why I'm studying my notes so that I won't make any big mistakes". Ichigo hated it when Makato acted all high and mighty. "Make sure you don't make any big mistakes" replied Makato, rudely. Ichigo felt like stamping on Makato's toes in anger, but she didn't want to cause trouble and just continued looking at her notes.

Ichigo started to concentrate on her chocolate; she started to make chocolate chip muffins with chocolate whipped cream in the middle. She made the chocolate chip muffin batter with flour, milk, sugar, butter, baking powder, eggs, vanilla essence, chocolate chips and cocoa powder. When she placed the muffin batter in the oven, she started to work on the chocolate whipped cream. She heated some whipping cream in a saucepan and finely chopped up some milk chocolate. When the cream came to the heat, Ichigo placed the chocolate pieces into the cream to melt. Then, after the chocolate melted, she whisked the cream and chocolate together until the cream was whipped. When the muffins were cooked and cooled, Ichigo cut the top parts of the muffins off, spread some of the cream on top of the bottom parts and placed the tops back on. To finish it off she dusted some icing sugar on top.

Vanilla looked at the muffins. "You did these very well Ichigo" she said. "I actually made these at my old school a few times before" smiled Ichigo. She and Vanilla tried one of the chocolate muffins together. "Oh wow Ichigo," said Vanilla "these are delicious. And I specially love the chocolate cream". "Thank you Vanilla" smiled Ichigo. Vanilla made a recipe card of Ichigo's chocolate cream muffins and sent it to the queen.

Makato, who had been keeping watch o Ichigo, came over to look at the muffins. "They look presentable" he said, and he tried one. "You still need a lot to learn about making sweets with chocolate". "I didn't lie when I said that I hadn't made chocolate for a while thank you Kashino," said Ichigo "and that's why I'm going to practice again tonight before the chocolate test". It was quite clear that Ichigo and Makato hadn't quite opened up to each other yet.

That evening, when the classes were all over, Ichigo headed over to the cooking rooms to practice making chocolate. "What chocolate sweet are you going to practice Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "Well I'll need to think about what sweets I should make for the chocolate test," said Ichigo "and then practice on that. Besides I would like to make something that would make Kashino loss for words. I'm telling you Vanilla, just because he's a specialist with chocolate does not mean he has the right to look down on others". "You're right Ichigo," said Vanilla "to be honest my rival, who I told you about before, looks down on others too just because she's good with chocolate". Ichigo started to wonder if she will ever meet Vanilla's rival, or meet any other sweets spirits in the school.

Once they got into the cooking class, Ichigo got out the utensils she'll need for making chocolate at once. Then she looked through some chocolate books she got out from the library. After looking she decided to do a chocolate roll; as she wasn't quite skilled on making chocolate yet she decided to do something a bit simple. "Okay Vanilla let's get to work" said Ichigo. "Yes let's" replied Vanilla.

Just as Ichigo was about to start working on her chocolate roll, Makato turned up in the classroom. "Kashino what are you doing here?" asked Ichigo. "I've come here to practice my chocolate making," replied Makato "a chocolate patissier must always practice if he ever wants to make perfect chocolate". Ichigo was impressed that Makato still practiced even though he was a chocolate expert. "Hey Kashino," she said "are your parents chocolate makers as well?" Ichigo thought that Makato's parents must be chocolate specialists too. "No my parents are both doctors," replied Makato "it's my uncle, who is a chocolate patissier, who inspired me to become a chocolate patissier. My uncle owns a chocolate shop and I visited it all the time while I was growing up. And I always loved watching my uncle make chocolate and whenever I helped him he would give me some chocolate as a reward". "Sounds to me that you like your uncle a lot" said Ichigo. "Yeah I do, he was the only person in my family that I was close to" said Makato. "Ah so you don't have a good relationship with your parents," said Ichigo "I understand because I don't really have a good relationship with my mum". She explained to him about her mother favouring her little sister Natsume over her. "My grandma, who I loved a lot, was more of a mum to me than a grandma". Makato just stared at her. "All right enough talking," he said "it's time to get to work".

As Ichigo was making the chocolate swiss roll batter with milk chocolate, she was noticing Makato dealing with his chocolate. 'Wow,' she thought 'watching Kashino make chocolate makes me realise that he loves making chocolate very much'. After the chocolate roll was baked, Ichigo spread strawberry whipped cream in the middle and wrapped up the roll. For decoration she spread whipped cream over the top of the swiss roll and added grated milk chocolate for decoration. "That looks good Ichigo" aid Vanilla. Ichigo tried a bit of the chocolate roll. "Hmm it does taste good, but it tastes a little bit too sweet, and it's a bit plain as well" she said. Vanilla tried some as well. "Yes I agree with that" she said.

Ichigo read through the book she was looking at earlier again to see what she should do about her plain chocolate swiss roll. She found out about the differences of dark, milk and white chocolate. "So dark is bitter, milk is sweet and white is the sweetest" she said to herself, while writing down notes. Makato came over and placed a hot drink in front of her. "This is hot chocolate," he said "it may perk you up a bit". Ichigo thanked Makato and tried it. "Delicious" she said. Makato explained that his uncle taught him how to make hot chocolate using cut up pieces of chocolate. "You certainly know how to study things properly" he said to Ichigo. "Well I did come here to study to become a patissiere Kashino," said Ichigo "I didn't come here to show off and mess around you know". "Just try not to exhaust your-self" said Makato. Ichigo could not understand Makato at all; first he acts mean to her, then he starts acting nice, but still acts rude. 'He is such a sadist' she thought.

Tomorrow it was time for the chocolate test. Ichigo decided to make a chocolate swiss roll again, but thought of different ideas. Instead of making the swiss roll cake with milk chocolate, she used bitter chocolate. That way the cake won't be too sweet this time. Next she added strawberry whipped cream for the middle part and she added some fruits for decoration; strawberries, kiwi fruits and pineapple. After rolling it up and spreading whipped cream on top, she grated white chocolate for the decoration. "That looks a lot better than the one yesterday Ichigo" said Vanilla. "I agree," said Ichigo "and I call this the angel and devil fruit roll, because the white chocolate represents the angel and the bitter chocolate represents the devil". "I like that" said Vanilla, and she made a recipe card and sent it to the queen.

Ichigo and the sweets princes got high marks for their cakes. Satsuki made a chocolate and raspberry cake with a big rose on top. Sennosuke made a chocolate and green tea flavoured cake, and Makato made an opera cake, with decoration signs of an opera on top. An opera cake was a french cake made with an almond sponge, soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffee buttercream and with a chocolate glaze on top.

When it came for the tasting time Satsuki and Sennosuke liked Ichigo's cake. Makato tried a bit and said; "This is a good chocolate cake, but you still have a lot to learn about chocolate". Ichigo wasn't sure if to feel pleased or cross, but since this was Makato's way of expressing feelings, she didn't bother to say anything back. But one thing for sure was this; she now got to know Makato better.

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><p>I decided to have Vanilla to send two recipe cards to the queen of sweets.<p> 


	6. Birthday party at Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Birthday party at Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten<strong>

After the chocolate test was over, Ichigo got the surprise of her life. She discovered that Makato, Satsuki and Sennosuke had sweets spirits too. Satsuki had a male sweets spirit named Café and Café was dressed as a butler and he was very polite, and his specialty was coffee. Sennosuke had a female sweets spirit named Caramel and she was nice but shy, a klutz, a cry baby and a real worry wart, and her specialty was caramel. Makato had a female sweets spirit named Chocolat and her specialty was chocolate. But she was rude, bossy and bad tempered like Makato was, and she didn't seem to think much of Ichigo. "I can't believe that you were chosen to be in group A," Chocolat said rudely to Ichigo "you don't seem to be as skilled as Kashino". "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you Chocolat," said Ichigo, standing up for herself, "but Henri-sensei is the one who chose for me to be in group A, so there!" "That's right Chocolat!" shouted Vanilla "and there's nothing you can do about it!" Apparently Chocolat and Vanilla were rivals and they never got on well with each other; in fact they also fought with each other. Café, Caramel and Chocolat also had the same dream as Vanilla; they wished to become patissiers in the royal court of the sweets kingdom.

As Ichigo already knew that Sennosuke's dream was to own a Japanese and European mixed sweets shop and Satsuki's dream was to work alongside with his mother, who's a florist, as coordinators for food, clothing and residences, and Makato's dream was to become a great chocolate patissier, she told them about her dream. Her dream was to own a cake shop and make cakes that would bring smiles to people's faces. "In the past, when I made cakes to share with my friends, my friends always smiled while eating them and that always made me feel happy. It also made me happy whenever I used to make some cakes for my grandma and that she would smile from them". "I call that a lovely dream" said Satsuki. "I take it your parents and sister became happy with your cakes too?" asked Sennosuke. "Not really," said Ichigo "to tell you the truth I never revealed my talent for making sweets to my parents and sister before in the past. I believed that revealing my talent would never make a difference with the distant relationship that I have with my mother and sister. I only revealed my talent to them after Henri-sensei told me about St Marie Academy". The sweets princes and the sweets spirits started to feel a bit sorry for Ichigo for not being close with her own family that well, even though she had been very close with her grandma. "Have you and your mother made amends yet?" asked Sennosuke. "Well we did a bit before I left home for St Marie Academy, but I still don't feel close to her yet".

The sweets princes and spirits decided to cheer Ichigo up a bit with a cake. They made her a sponge cake with strawberries and whipped cream in the middle, and they made marzipan figures of Ichigo and Vanilla for the top. Ichigo was grateful and thanked everyone. She stared at the marzipan figurines and picked one up. "I always find it amazing how patissiers make figurines like this with marzipan or icing," she said "I've seen patissiers make figurines for cakes lots of times on TV, but it always looks so complicating. Especially when you have to make sure that the design is just right, with no faults like cracks and everything else. I've made some designs myself before, but I'm still not brilliant with that yet". "Making the design for cakes is not as simple as you think," said Satsuki "when designing a cake you have to look in on every detail and you make sure that it is something that those, who are eating the cake, will like it. Even the smallest mistake is something that you can't make". "Like when you're making clothes right?" asked Ichigo "in my last school I had a friend, who's mum is a fashion designer, and she used to tell me that you must never make any faults when designing clothes, not even one". The sweets princes were impressed with how clever Ichigo was.

That evening Rumi was talking to Ichigo about the task that both group A, group B and group C had to do the day after tomorrow. There was a preschool called Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten a few miles from St Marie Academy and the students always made birthday cakes every month for the students whenever it was their birthday. Ichigo couldn't wait for that; she liked kids and she couldn't wait to make birthday cakes for them.

When that day came, the students from group A, group B and group C went to Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten with their birthday cakes for the students. The cakes were for three students; a girl named Hitomi, a boy named Hiro and another girl named Mayu. Group C made a cherry cheese cake for Hitomi. Group B made a cake for Hiro, in the shape of a space man hero's mask. Group A made a princess cake for Mayu. The students were delighted with the cakes and thanked the students at once. While the kids were happily eating the cakes, Ichigo saw the happy reactions on the kids' faces.

Just then she saw one little girl sitting alone in a corner with a piece of cake. Rumi explained to Ichigo that the little girl was called Ringo, and she was Kana Koizumi's little sister. Kana and her family lived in Aomori, but then Kana left to attend St Marie Academy. Then last month Kana's family moved from Aomori to live near to Kana and so far Ringo hasn't made any new friends yet because she's a shy girl. Ichigo felt sorry for Ringo and decided to chat with her.

Ichigo and Ringo had a talk outside in the preschool playground. "What cakes do you like Ringo-chan?" asked Ichigo. "I like apple cakes with fresh cream" said Ringo, shyly. She told Ichigo that at her last school in Aomori her teacher always made an apple cake for her and her friends whenever it snowed. Ringo's birthday was next month and Ichigo decided to make an apple cake for Ringo. But Ringo was worried that everyone would tease her for having an apple cake. Apparently Ringo had been teased ever since she entered the Piyo-Piyo kindergarten school because her cheeks were always red as apples because of her shyness and lots of the kids called her apple cheeks. Ichigo felt really sorry for Ringo now and decided that Ringo's birthday cake should be a cake, which will help her make friends with everyone at her new school.

That evening, while the students were heading back to St Marie Academy, Ichigo told the sweets princes about Ringo. "If it's all right with you three, I want to design Ringo-chan's cake" she said. "Off course" said Sennosuke. "Since you're so inspired to do it, you should do it Ichigo-chan" said Satsuki.

That night, Ichigo began to think of what design would be good for Ringo's birthday cake. As the cake was going to be an apple cake with cream in the middle, and a cake that would help Ringo make new friends with her classmates, Ichigo wanted the design to be just right. The next day Ichigo watched the children at the preschool playing in the playground. Kana was with her; she had found out that Ichigo was designing Ringo's cake and Kana was curious to see what Ichigo was planning to do. After watching the kids play in the playground and remembering that Ringo liked snow very much, Ichigo started to get an idea for the cake design and got to work at once.

The next Ichigo showed her design to the sweets princes. She had come up with a snow park for a design. "The students, the apple tree and the apples will both be made with marzipan," she explained "and the snow dome will be apple pieces covered in fresh cream, same with the inside of the cake. The snowmen will be white chocolate, filled with custard cream, and the apples and snow dome will have white chocolate on top". Sennosuke and Satsuki liked Ichigo's design because it looked fun and that Ichigo had captured the kindergarten students' traits well. Even Makato was impressed with Ichigo's design.

That evening Ichigo and the sweet princes practiced on making Ringo's cake. Makato worked on the chocolate snowmen and the chocolate to go on top of the apples, Sennosuke worked on the snow dome and cream to go inside the cake and Satsuki and Ichigo worked on the marzipan figures and cake. "Will Amano's design be all right?" asked Chocolat. Chocolat didn't have faith in Vanilla. "Of course it will be okay," said Vanilla, crossly, "she worked hard on the design and thought very carefully of Ringo-chan's feelings". Sometime later, the cake was done. Ichigo was happy with how he cake turned out and she prayed with all her heart that the cake will make Ringo happy.

After practicing making Ringo's cake, Ichigo and the sweet princes left the kitchen for their dorms. Caramel stayed behind to watch over the cake. But trouble was occurring. The four students from group B, named Ikue Nakajima, Rie Mihara, Chinatsu Sayama and Youko Ayukawa, had entered the kitchen and looked at Ichigo's design. "This design is nothing special" said Ikue. Rie began to take pictures of it. The truth is group B didn't like Ichigo; they were jealous of her being in group A and they didn't believe she was capable enough to be in the same team. Right now they had a nasty plan; they planned to copy Ichigo's design so that Ichigo would end up bringing in the same cake to the preschool. They were the type of mean bullies who wished to embarrass Ichigo and make her loose face in St Marie Academy. Caramel was watching the girls take photos of the cake, but she didn't realise what they were really up too; being naïve and all.

Weeks later, it was the day for group A and B to take birthday cakes to Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten. Ichigo couldn't wait to take her group's cake to Ringo. She especially couldn't wait to see Ringo's face once she saw the cake. But once the group got to the kitchen to make the cake, they saw group B with their cake with the same design as theirs. "Hey wait, that's our cake" said Sennosuke. "That's right," said Ichigo "it's designed the same way as my cake design". "Huh?" said Ikue "please don't say weird things". "You copied from her design Amano" said Chinatsu. "That is not true," Ichigo argued back "I drew that design myself, especially for Ringo-chan". The sweet princes could clearly see that group B stole Ichigo's design. "I wouldn't bother showing up with your cake if I were you Amano," said Chinatsu "otherwise that little girl will be teased for having the same cake". Then they left the kitchen to get ready to take their cake to the preschool; their cake was for another student named Ayu.

Ichigo was not happy that Ikue, Rie, Chinatsu and Youko had stolen her design. "How dare they steal my design!" she shouted, angrily, "It's unforgivable, especially since I designed it to make Ringo-chan happy!" "They must have copied it after we practiced it a few weeks ago" said Satsuki. It was at that moment that Caramel told everyone about group B taking pictures of the design that night. "For goodness sake Caramel!" shouted Chocolat "you should have told us earlier!" "Sorry!" cried Caramel. "Now what should we do?" asked Sennosuke "the party at Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten is at twelve o'clock and we don't really have another design for Ringo-chan's birthday cake". "I do," said Ichigo "I have another design for our cake". The sweet princes and sweet spirits looked at Ichigo in wonder.

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><p>In this story Ichigo knows how to speak for herself and stand up to people.<p> 


	7. Friendship Birthday Cake

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Friendship Birthday Cake<strong>

Group B were starting to get ready for taking their birthday cake to Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten. They were feeling pleased with themselves for copying Ichigo's design. Just then Kana and Rumi turned up; they had found out that group B had stolen Ichigo's cake design. "How could you?" stealing Ichigo's design!" shouted Kana "she worked hard on that design for my little sister's sake". "You four are a disgrace!" shouted Rumi "copying someone else's cake design makes you failures as patissieres". Then Rumi and Kana left to see if they could help group A out. Group B just huffed at the words; they didn't care about Ringo, all they cared about was Ichigo feeling embarrassed and losing face at St Marie Academy.

In the kitchen the sweets princes were listening to Ichigo's idea for a new design for Ringo's birthday cake. Since group B copied their design, they had to use a different design. "What are we going to do Amano?" asked Makato. "We are going to make a cake that any little girl would want" said Ichigo. She took out her sketch book and showed everyone a design of a house of sweets. Cookies and sweets were on the roof of the gingerbread house and there was a white chocolate cream frosting to go on top of the house. "I thought of this design, before I thought of the snow park design. Kindergarteners love the story of Hansel and Gretel and their favourite part is always the candy house. So we are going to do this design for Ringo-chan". The sweet princes liked the design and everyone got to work at once. Sennosuke worked on the cookies and icing, Makato worked on the white chocolate cream frosting, Satsuki worked on some more marzipan designs for the house, and Ichigo worked on the gingerbread.

The sweet spirits were not happy with what group B had done, especially Vanilla. "Those girls are terrible for stealing Ichigo's design" said Vanilla. "I agree they are really unfair" said Café. "It's obvious they did it because they are jealous of Amano-san, because she is in our group" said Sennosuke. "It's not really my fault that Henri-sensei decided to place me in group A," said Ichigo "besides I still don't understand myself why he placed me in your group. Especially since my skills of making sweets isn't the same level as yours". "Your skill maybe not the same," said Satsuki "but you have something more than us three have all together". "Really, what's that?" asked Ichigo. "Heart," replied Sennosuke "we could see from your design that you care about Ringo-chan's feelings more than we do. And you make your sweets with heart too". Ichigo smiled at their words, and continued to work on the cake.

Meanwhile group B was doing some more mean things. They had a plan of making group A late for the kindergarten. They told the bus driver that group A was coming by cab so they left now on the bus. Kana and Rumi saw what just happened. "How dare they!" shouted Rumi. Kana was not going to let them get away with their plan, so she and Rumi decided to hitch hike.

At that time, group A had finished their gingerbread house cake and now it was time for them to go. But when they got outside they realised that the bus was gone. "What are we going to do?" asked Ichigo. "It will be too late to try and get to the Kindergarten by cab" said Sennosuke. But then Kana and Rumi turned up in someone's truck. Earlier Kana had stopped a truck driver and told him that she and her friends needed a ride to Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten. Group A got into the truck at once and the driver started to drive away to Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten. "Thank you for giving us a lift" said Kana. "It's my pleasure," said the driver "besides you seemed so desperate when you asked me for a lift". "We need to go fast," said Rumi "it's almost twelve o clock". So the driver started to drive fast and Ichigo held the cake well to make sure it didn't break.

At Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten, group B were ready to present their birthday cake to Ayu. They found their plan of making group A being late very amusing. As group A had not arrived yet, group B showed their cake to Ayu. Of course it was the snow park that Ichigo had come up with. Ayu and the other students on her table were delighted with the cake. Ringo and her group were anxious about their cake coming.

At that moment, group A, Kana and Rumi turned up. "Sorry we're late" said Ichigo. Ringo was happy that Ichigo had turned up at last. "You guys sure took your sweet time" said Ikue. "We thought that you were never going to turn up" said Chinatsu. "You better hurry up and show Ringo her cake, because everyone is waiting" said Rie. Makato was angry with group B because it was their doing for making them late. Group were fully confident about their plan of embarrassing Ichigo; they of course didn't know that group A had redone the cake. Ichigo happily placed Ringo's cake on the table. "Happy birthday Ringo-chan" she said. She lifted the box lid and revealed the gingerbread house cake. The gingerbread house was covered with white chocolate cream on the top, decorated with sweets and cookies. Group A kept the apple trees and the apples with white chocolate, and the students. They also added a witch for the gingerbread house.

Ringo was indeed happy with her cake and the other students liked it as well. Group B couldn't believe that group A had redone the cake. This of course meant that their plan of embarrassing Ichigo had back fired. "Now everyone," said Ichigo "help save Ringo from the witch inside the house by dropping apples down the chimney". This was a plan of Ichigo to help Ringo make friends with the help of the cake. The students picked up the marzipan students and dropped the apples from the apple trees down the chimney. Once the witch fell over Ichigo opened up the roof of the gingerbread house and revealed that Ringo was safe. "Okay Ringo-chan, thank everyone for saving you" said Ichigo. Ringo got out of her seat and bravely thanked the students; she didn't feel shy anymore.

Ringo saw that Ayu was sitting by herself and asked to have her cake next to Ayu's cake. Ringo and Ayu started to form a friendship with their marzipan figures of each other. Now Ringo did have new friends and was no longer her shy, quiet self. She was now as happy as could be. The sweets princes and sweet spirits could definitely see that Ichigo's did indeed help Ringo open up to her new classmates. "You see, I told you that everything would be all right" said Vanilla. Café and Caramel knew that Vanilla was right, and even Chocolat admitted that she was wrong for doubting Ichigo's design. The sweet spirits magically transformed the cake into a sweets card and sent it to the queen.

Now it was time to eat the cakes. Group A's cake was an apple cake, with custard, but it had apple mouse and gelee added. Everyone loved the cake, especially Ringo. She admitted that it was different than the cake her old teacher made, but it was just as delicious. Ichigo could see that everyone was happy with the cake. Kana was grateful to Ichigo for helping her sister smile again with the cake. "Thank you Ichigo-chan" said Kana. Ichigo was happy to have helped out a friend. Ichigo tried group B's cake. It was an apple cake with custard, but the apples had been mixed in the sponge. Ichigo found it delicious.

Group B was now leaving Piyo-Piyo Kindergarten; they had enough of seeing their defeat. Ichigo saw them leave. 'Those girls can make delicious cakes,' she thought 'but they are the bullying type'. Ichigo could see that group B disliked her because she was in group A. 'It's still not my fault for being placed in group A'. She hoped that there weren't any more students who disliked her for being in group A.

Ringo walked up to Ichigo and thanked her for the cake, with a big smile. She had all the marzipan figures of her friends. Ichigo started to form a big smile on her face too. 'This is what I definitely want,' she thought 'I want to make people happy with my sweets'.

On the way back to academy, Ichigo told the sweets princes and the sweet spirits of how happy she felt. "I find it wonderful what happiness making sweets and watching people eat your sweets can bring" she said. "It's like what I said to you Amano-san," said Sennosuke "it was your heart that made Ringo-chan happy again; because you made it with a kind happy heart". "My grandma would always tell me that making sweets with love and happiness added would make your sweets very delicious and I agree with that" said Ichigo. Ichigo could not wait to make more delicious sweets in the future.

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><p>Ichigo should have understood that group B was bullying her in the anime. So in this story she does and to let everyone know there will be some changes of what happens with Ichigo and group B.<p> 


	8. The Genius, arch-rival and the natural?

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The Genius, the Arch-rival, and the Natural?<strong>

One evening, Ichigo was saying goodbye to Rumi at the bus stop. Rumi was going home for a day to see her family. "You take-care Ichigo, bye" said Rumi. Then Rumi got onto the bus and left. Ichigo was just about to head back to the dorms, when suddenly a smart black limousine past by her on the way to the dorms. "Wow what a car," said Ichigo "I wonder who was in that?"

As she walked back to the dorms, Makato saw her from the library window. "What are you doing?" he asked. "I was saying goodbye to Rumi, who just went home" said Ichigo. Makato realised that Ichigo would be alone, and then he jokingly told her about ghosts appearing at night in the dorms. "I do not believe in that childish nonsense!" Ichigo huffed, and she went back to the girls dorms.

After a good night's sleep, Ichigo was standing on the balcony and was thinking what to do today. It was the weekend so there were no classes today. "What are we going to do Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "Well we could go to the shops in town," said Ichigo "I heard there are some shops that have some marvellous sweets". "Then we should go there" said Vanilla. But then someone from below called out to Ichigo. It was the girls from group B. "We are going to pick some walnuts, want to come Amano?" said Ikue. Ichigo frowned and did not trust their invite. "No I don't thank you, because I already have plans," she said "and walnut season is over". She quickly went back into her room. As walnut season was over, Ichigo could tell that group B were trying to pick on her again. "Those girls are still being mean to you Ichigo" said Vanilla. "You're right," said Ichigo "and to be honest with you Vanilla, I have a feeling that they are going to try and do more nasty things to me in the future. So we better watch them". "You leave that to me Ichigo, because those girls cannot see me as they have no sweet spirits" said Vanilla. "If they did have sweet spirits, I reckon they would be mean like them" said Ichigo. Vanilla agreed.

Outside group B were cross that their plan had not worked. "That girl is smart," said Rie "and I think she knows what we are trying to do to her". "This just means we will need to think of something else" replied Ikue. Ikue was more eager than the others to pick on Ichigo. But before they could try to think of something else, a girl with blond hair came up to them. "What are you doing?" she asked. The girls gasped at the sight of the girl; the girl was Mari Tennouji and she was the top student of St Marie Academy. Mari was famous throughout the school because of her beauty, her grades and her genius skills of making sweets. "Eh nothing Tennouji sempai" stuttered Ikue. "We were just asking Amano if she wanted to come walnut picking with us" said Chinatsu. "Even though walnut season is over?" asked Mari. Group B started to leave.

Ichigo and Vanilla were getting ready to go to town, but then there was a knock at the door. "It better not be group B again" said Ichigo. When she opened the door, she saw that it wasn't group B but Mari Tennouji. Ichigo had heard about Mari and her excellent skills, but she had never met her before. "What can I do for you Tennouji sempai?" asked Ichigo. "I would like you to come to the high school dormitories with me" said Mari. Ichigo was surprised that Mari was inviting her to the high school dormitories, but she accepted the invitation.

Mari led Ichigo all the way to high school dormitories and also brought her to her room. It was a big room and there was a kitchen added to it. "Oh wow!" gasped Ichigo "I'd love to have a room like this, especially with a kitchen added to it. I could make sweets anytime I want without heading over to the school kitchens. So why have you invited me here Tennouji sempai?" Mari explained that she knew about Ichigo and the fact that Henri-sensei scouted her to St Marie Academy. "I'm happy that I met Henri-sensei," said Ichigo "because if I didn't, I would never have thought about being a student here at St Marie Academy. So I'm grateful to him". "I see" replied Mari.

Mari started to make honey soufflé for her and Ichigo. Ichigo watched as Mari made them. "Wow she's made them with no hesitations and no wrong movements" whispered Ichigo. "She is the top student after all" whispered Vanilla. Ichigo noticed a glass window cabinet, full of trophies. The trophies were all Mari's and they were from past competitions she had entered and there were ones about being top student. "Wow you're amazing to win these many trophies" said Ichigo to Mari. Natsume did have lots of trophies and medals at home but Mari had way more than her. "Even though I have won many trophies, I only work hard for the acknowledgement of one person" said Mari. "You're trying to gain somebody's attention?" asked Ichigo "who's?" "From someone that I have known and respected for years" replied Mari. Ichigo felt a bit un-comfy with Mari's words; normally trying to gain the acknowledgement of someone would just make you a show off and a fool. But Ichigo decided to mind her own business and not ask any more questions.

Soon the soufflé was done and Mari gave one to Ichigo. Ichigo found the honey soufflé delicious. "The way how this honey soufflé melts inside your mouth is incredible" she said. Just then she noticed something about the soufflé. "I smell a fragrance of a mandarin orange in the soufflé. Did you use some mandarin orange flavoured honey?" "Yes I like to use all different types of honey in my sweets; honey sweets is my specialty" replied Mari, who was surprised that Ichigo was able to realize that.

After finishing the soufflé, Ichigo thanked Mari and headed back to the middle school dormitories. She had asked Mari if she could take some soufflé back to her dorm and Mari agreed. 'I feel that Ichigo has a lot of hidden abilities for making sweets,' thought Mari 'I feel I better keep watch of her skills'.

When Rumi came back, Ichigo told her about her day with Mari. Rumi couldn't believe what Ichigo told her, because no student had ever been in Mari's room before. She also couldn't believe that Ichigo got to try Mari's famous honey soufflé. "It must have been nice to know that Tennouji sempai knows you" said Rumi. "It did," said Ichigo "but I don't think I'm anything special compared to her and the sweets princes". Rumi smiled. "I think you are special in your own way Ichigo" she said. "So do I Ichigo" whispered Vanilla. Ichigo smiled at that comment.

Rumi told Ichigo about Mari entering the cake grand prix and she explained to Ichigo what that was. The cake grand prix was a sweets making competition that St Marie Academy held once a year, and it was the biggest event held at school. And the winner got to study at the St Marie Academy in Paris. "Are only the high school students of St Marie Academy allowed to enter?" asked Ichigo. "Oh no the middle school students are allowed to enter as well," said Rumi "to tell you the truth the sweets princes entered last year and they made past the preliminary rounds". "Wow, that's amazing" said Ichigo. She had never known about this until now. "Mind you, they would have gone higher if the heiress wasn't in their group" said Rumi. "Heiress?" said Ichigo. Rumi showed Ichigo a picture of a girl with ginger curly hair on the computer. "That girl is the heiress," said Rumi "and it was her fault that the sweets princes lost in the second round last year". "Goodness" replied Ichigo. She wondered what happened.

Next day Ichigo was cooking in the kitchens with the sweets princes and she told them all about group B and her invite to Mari's dorm room yesterday. The boys couldn't believe their ears. "Wow Ichigo-chan, you're lucky to have been in Tennouji sempai's room," said Satsuki "because no middle school student has ever been in there before". "So group B are still picking on you huh?" asked Sennosuke. "Yep, but I am not going to let them ruin my time here at St Marie Academy" said Ichigo. "It's good you didn't fool for their trick," said Makato "because only an idiot would go into the forest to gather walnuts, even though walnut season is over". Ichigo got cross. "I knew that walnut season was over thank you Kashino," said Ichigo "and that's why I didn't fool for their trick. And if you aren't satisfied with having me in the group, then just ask the heiress to be in your group". When Makato heard the word heiress he suddenly turned very pale, as if he just saw a ghost. Ichigo was surprised by that reaction. "Eh what happened with this heiress?" Ichigo asked Satsuki.

Satsuki and Sennosuke explained to Ichigo that the heiress was a third year middle school student named Miya Koshiro, and that she was the daughter of the president of Chateau Seika. Ichigo had heard of Chateau Seika; it was a famous company that made sweets, cakes, chocolates and cookies. "The truth is she has a crush of Kashino" said Satsuki. "Last year we were teamed up with her," said Sennosuke "but she kept on making mistakes and never concentrated on her work properly". "You're kidding?" asked Ichigo "but if she was that bad, then how did she end up as your team member last year?" "We guess it was because of her being the heiress to the Chateau Seika" said Satsuki. Ichigo started to think that Miya Koshiro was a spoilt girl. "Last year at the grand prix, after we made our sweets for the second round, Koshiro made Makato drop the sweets on the floor and that's why we lost in the second round" said Sennosuke. "Good grief!" said Ichigo "she shouldn't have had the right to be in the grand prix, with that behaviour". "Yeah but that's what happened" said Sennosuke.

Ichigo asked the boys if they were going to enter the cake grand prix again this year. "Yes we are," said Satsuki "because studying at the St Marie Academy in Paris is what we both want to do". "And we have decided to have you be in our team Amano-san" said Sennosuke. "What? Me?" gasped Ichigo "but I'm not ready to enter something like this yet". "I think you are," said Satsuki "besides we feel more like a team with you than any other girl we've teamed up before". "I agree" said Sennosuke. Ichigo couldn't believe that the boys chose her, but she agreed to enter with them.

Ichigo and the boys went to the Salon de Marie; Makato decided that this would be a good start of preparing for the cake grand prix. The boys decided they should head for the angel's pudding, which was made from Mari Tennouji. The angel's pudding was a crème caramel dessert. Ichigo told the boys about her eating Mari's honey soufflé, and it made the boys jealous because they haven't tried it yet.

When they were at a table, they were served with crème caramel desserts, even though they hadn't ordered anything yet. Ichigo tried and found it delicious. "This caramel pudding has a very rich flavoured cream and the use of eggs and milk is great," she said "it tastes like the sun". The boys and spirits found it delicious too. "I'm glad you like my pudding Makato-kun" said a voice.

Makato nervously turned round and there was Miya Koshiro. She looked like a high class lady from the Georgian times. Miya had two boys with her; Satou and Shiyotani, and they were her servants. "As you can see I have improved on my skills a lot since last year," said Miya "and I went through a lot of intensively training under first class patissiers. So Makato-kun let's team up together in the grand prix again". "Sorry Sempai," said Makato "but I'm teaming up with Ichigo Amano this year". "What?" said Miya, in disbelieve. Miya looked at Ichigo. "I've heard that you were scouted by Henri-sensei, and I have heard that your skills are quite good. But your skills are nowhere near like mine. So Makato you should just team up with me". Ichigo glared; she could see that Miya was indeed a very spoilt brat, and she was the type who always wanted to get what she desired. "Enough already!" shouted Ichigo "the sweets princes don't want to team up with you. And I don't blame them, especially since it was your fault that they lost in the cake grand prix last year". Miya went pale in the face. "I've heard everything about what happened last year, and that's why the boys don't trust you. Besides you can't just force yourself to be on their team; teamwork does not work like that".

Everyone in Salon de Marie heard the commotion and they were impressed with Ichigo standing up to Miya like that. Even the sweets princes were impressed. Miya huffed. "All right then Amano I shall challenge you to a showdown," she said "you and I will make a caramel crème pudding each. And the one who has made the best pudding wins. And if I win then I will team up with the sweets princes in the grand prix". Ichigo thought that Miya's idea was stupid, but she knew that Miya was very eager to team up with the sweets princes again.

The sweets princes felt uneasy about this. "What should we do?" whispered Sennosuke. "I don't know, I mean when Koshiro makes up her mind, there is no stopping her" whispered Satsuki. Makato was about to say something about this, but Ichigo spoke up. "I accept your challenge," she said "but if I win, then I will be teaming with the sweets princes". Miya smirked.

Mari and the chairman of the St Marie Academy were in the Salon de Mari, and they volunteered to be the judges. Mari thought that Miya's challenge with Ichigo was foolish, but the chairman insisted that the showdown happens. "Prepare your-self Amano," smirked Miya "because this showdown will determine of who will enter the cake grand prix with the sweets princes". Ichigo just stared.

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><p>No one exactly stood up to Miya Koshiro much in the anime. It was silly of Ichigo for falling for Group B's trick in the anime.<p> 


	9. The fated pudding showdown

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The fated pudding showdown<strong>

Ichigo and the sweets princes were in the school kitchens. As Ichigo had agreed to Miya's crème caramel pudding, she wanted to get ready for it. "Have you actually made pudding before Amano?" asked Makato. "Actually I have Kashino," said Ichigo "and I will prove it to you".

Ichigo got out everything she needed to make some crème caramel pudding; eggs, milk, cream, vanilla extract and caster sugar. And she got out two saucepans, two whisks, a roasting tin, a kettle and six soufflé dishes. The sweets princes and spirits watched in interest as Ichigo made the crème caramel puddings. She first made the caramel sauce by heating the sugar in a saucepan on a medium heat, watching carefully not to let the sauce burn. When the caramel was done she carefully added tablespoons of water to the caramel, taking great care not to get hit by the hot caramel, then added some of the caramel to the six soufflé dishes. Then she made the custard bit by whisking the eggs, milk, cream and remaining caramel all together, and then added it to the soufflé dishes. Next she placed the dishes into a roasting tin, poured hot water from the kettle into the tin, and then placed it into the pre-heated oven.

"You did that really well Amano-san," said Sennosuke "and you knew exactly what to do and you didn't even scald yourself from the hot water". "I didn't lie when I said that I knew how to make crème caramel pudding" said Ichigo. She took out a notepad of hers from her school bag, and she revealed some notes about making crème caramel puddings. "I take you learned how to make pudding from your grandma and uncle right?" asked Satsuki. "Actually no," said Ichigo "I learnt how to make crème caramel pudding from an elderly neighbour back at home. Her name is Kotoko and she likes sweets like me, and she's the one who taught me how to make pudding. I didn't get the hang of it at first; I kept on getting scalded by the hot water, and I made the caramel too bitter and less sweet than normal. But thanks to Kotoko-san, I learnt how to make pudding correctly".

The boys helped Ichigo with the washing up. "I still can't believe that you agreed to challenge Koshiro sempai Amano" said Makato. "So would you have preferred of teaming up with the heiress then?" asked Ichigo, crossly. "No I wouldn't" stuttered Makato.

When the puddings were done and ready to eat, Ichigo, the sweets princes and spirits tried the puddings. "Yum your pudding is great Ichigo" said Vanilla. "Yum the way I like them, nice sweet caramel" said Caramel. "It's a bit too sweet for me" said Café. "So I take it that means you prefer sweets that are less sweet?" asked Ichigo. "Yes, I prefer sweets that are bitter" said Café. Ichigo looked thoughtful. 'I must remember that people have different tastes; like some like them sweet and some like them not sweet' she thought. Makato pointed out an error in the pudding. "It's got holes" he said. Ichigo saw that Makato was right. "Oh dear, but I did put the oven on the right temperature though" she said. "It's true that you did," said Sennosuke "but the ovens are different from one another". Sennosuke explained that the lower oven cooks things faster than the other oven, and the upper oven cooks things unevenly. Ichigo realised that she still had a lot to learn about the ovens of St Marie Academy. 'I better learn the knack of using the ovens right before my challenge the day after tomorrow' she thought.

Meanwhile Miya was practicing her puddings at her home. Being a wealthy, spoilt girl; Miya had no intention of staying in the same room with the other students. She just saw them as commoners. She had just been informed that Ichigo knew how to make crème caramel pudding. "You shouldn't need to worry about her my lady" said Satou. "Yeah because you use high-quality ingredients," said Shiyotani "and you always win with them". "That's right," said Miya "high-quality ingredients is the proper ingredients for making sweets". Obviously she was one of those silly wealthy folk who believed that bigger is better. "Amano Ichigo, I'll be the only one to team up with Makato-kun". "I must ask my lady," said Satou "why do you work hard only for Kashino?" "None of your business," said Miya "now hurry up and tidy up".

The real reason Miya had an obsession was because all her life, people had always said her sweets were great, because she was the heiress to Chateau Seika. But Makato spoke the truth about them not being great. It was Makato's honestly that made her obsessed with him, and because of that she trained very hard to perfect her skills. 'Makato-kun my skills are different from last year,' thought Miya 'and I will prove that'.

The next day Ichigo decided to find out about Miya Koshiro, before practicing for the pudding showdown. She found out on the computer that Miya loved to show off and she preferred to use high-quality ingredients. "It's obvious Vanilla," said Ichigo "Koshiro acts like a stuck up princess". "You're right," said Vanilla "to tell you the truth, there is someone like her in the sweets kingdom as well. Her name is Maron and she acts very snobbish too". Ichigo just shook her head. "Then there's only one thing to do;" she said "and that's showing her what I can do in the pudding showdown tomorrow". "Yeah," said Vanilla "you work hard on making sweets. And you know exactly how to make a perfect pudding. So you win against that heiress". "I will," said Ichigo "but we have some practicing to do, and I mean now". "Right" saluted Vanilla. Ichigo and Vanilla set off for work at once.

The next day, it was time for the crème caramel pudding showdown. It was going to be held in the kitchens of the high school section, and the chairman and Mari were going to be the judges. The chairman was going to taste the puddings and Mari was going to give the results. Both Ichigo and Miya had to make five puddings. "I'm expecting delicious puddings" said the chairman. The chairman was an elderly man, with glasses, and he liked sweets as well.

The challenge began. Ichigo and Miya started to make their puddings. Ichigo made the caramel, but she made the caramel sauce go bitter. "What is Amano doing?" asked Makato. "Why is she making the caramel bitter?" asked Satsuki. Miya saw the situation and smirked. 'I win' she thought. Ichigo just calmly made her puddings; she had an idea in mind.

Soon the puddings were finished. As Ichigo made the caramel burn, it was brown coloured. Miya's caramel was a golden orange colour. 'I bet she's used high ingredients for her pudding' thought Ichigo. The chairman tried Miya's first. "My, this is delicious," he said "and you used silkie eggs and jersey milk". 'So I was right' thought Ichigo. Silkie eggs and jersey were high quality ingredients. Miya smirked; she believed that her win was in the bag. Next, the chairman tried Ichigo's pudding, and he realised that it was bitter. The sweets princes and spirits were nervous; they feared that Ichigo would certainly lose. Ichigo felt nervous too.

The results and winner was decided. "The winner is Amano Ichigo" said Mari. Ichigo was surprised that she had won, and the sweets princes and spirits congratulated her. Miya was not happy. "Why did my pudding not win?" she demanded. The chairman showed Miya that her pudding had holes, but Ichigo's didn't. "But how is that possible," asked Miya "I practiced with the same oven model as the ones here, and I never made a mistake with it". "That's because the ovens here are not the same as yours," said the chairman "the oven you used cooks fast. And if you don't regulate it, it will turn out hard". "But I didn't know that!" shouted Miya. "Amano-san did," said Mari "last evening, after class ended, Amano-san came here and asked if she could practice with the ovens to learn the knack of using them". "Really?" asked Makato. "Yes," said Ichigo "as I don't really know much yet about the ovens here at St Marie Academy. I decided it was time for me to learn about the ovens". "But the taste," said Miya "Amano's caramel should be bitter". "I actually made it bitter on purpose," said Ichigo "the other day I saw the chairman drinking black coffee and eating a gateaux au chocolat, which is quite bitter. So I realised that the chairman's preferred taste is bitter, is that right chairman?" "Yes that is right," smiled the chairman "and you are very clever for noticing that Amano". Miya thought that was unfair, but the chairman explained that learning about people's tastes were important for a patissiere, especially since you want them to be happy when eating your sweets.

The sweets princes were impressed with Ichigo and they felt happier to have Ichigo in their group, even Makato. Miya was not happy with her loss. "Don't think you've won just yet Amano" she said, tearfully, "this is not over!" Then she ran off in tears, and Satou and Shiyotani ran after her. 'She is such a brat,' thought Ichigo 'and if she is going to enter the grand prix, then I better watch out for her'. Vanilla magiced a recipe card of Ichigo's caramel pudding and sent it to the queen.

That evening Ichigo and the sweets princes and spirits were relaxing after today's events. "That Miya Koshiro is the brattiest girl that I have ever met in life," said Ichigo "I mean she's a year older than us, yet she has the attitude and behaviour of a five year old". "It is true;" said Sennosuke "the story is Koshiro had been spoiled rotten by her family ever since she was a baby". Ichigo shook her head in disbelief.

Just then Mari turned up. "You have made a rival out of the daughter of the president of Chateau Seika," she said "but I'm sure it will work out for all of you. Especially since all four of you have sweet spirits". Ichigo and the sweets princes and spirits were surprised that Mari could see the spirits. Just then Ichigo and Vanilla noticed that Mari had a sweet spirit too; this sweet spirit was female and was dressed in a brown and white maid outfit and she had the same blond haired coloured hair like Mari's. "I look forward to seeing what type of cake you will make," said Mari "and I hope to meet you all again in the cake grand prix". Then she left.

Ichigo started to stretch her arms. "Well then," she said "since I'll be entering the cake grand prix with you guys, I better start planning about practicing and studying for it right?" "Practicing and studying?" asked Satsuki. "Yes," said Ichigo "I mean this cake grand prix is obviously like a very big test for patissiers and patissieres. And of course this means we cannot afford to not know what we are doing, or make any mistakes right?" "That's right," said Sennosuke "you get judged for your skills, apart from what sweets you've done. And you will lose points for any mistakes". "That's exactly why I'm going to practice a lot for the cake grand prix;" said Ichigo "as your teammate I have no intention of letting you guys down like Miya Koshiro let you down last year". The boys stared at Ichigo; they could see that Ichigo had a strong spirit and passion for being a patissiere. "This is not going to be easy you know" said Makato. "Excuse me Kashino," said Ichigo, folding her arms, "my wish is to become a patissiere, and I am not going to let anything or anyone stop me from achieving my goal. Okay?" Kashino stared. "Very well then," he said "just don't tire your-self out for when the grand prix starts".

So it was agreed that Ichigo would enter the cake grand prix with the sweets princes. "Are you going to start practicing and studying tomorrow Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "No, not tomorrow," said Ichigo "the truth is I am going home tonight, because I am going to visit my uncle's shop tomorrow".

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><p>There is going to be a lot of changes when I get to the episode of when Team Koshiro versus Team Ichigo with the chocolate cake challenge. You wait and see. Kotoko is my own made up character.<p> 


	10. The strawberry tart of memories

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The strawberry tart of memories<strong>

Ichigo and Vanilla were on the train, on the way to Ichigo's house. Earlier she had told the sweets princes about her plan of going home tonight to visit her uncle's shop tomorrow. She also explained that tomorrow was the anniversary of when her grandma died two years ago, so Ichigo wanted to go home to visit her resting place. The sweets princes understood Ichigo's plan, especially Satsuki; he always visited his father's grave when it was his death anniversary. So Ichigo got permission from the school office to leave the school for tomorrow and got onto the bus and train for home at once.

"I can't wait to see your grandma's shop Ichigo" said Vanilla. Ichigo had told Vanilla about what her grandma's shop was like before, but Vanilla hadn't visited it yet. "I can't wait either Vanilla," said Ichigo "I last saw it in the summer and I haven't visited it since then". The train soon arrived at Nijigaoka, where Ichigo lived, and Ichigo and Vanilla got off the train.

When Ichigo got home, her parents and sister were happy to see her again, especially her dad; he missed her most of all. Ichigo was asked a lot of questions about her school days in St Marie Academy, and Ichigo explained to her family about all that happened so far, she also told them about the girls in group B, who didn't like her, and about the spoilt Miya. Her family could see that Ichigo had gone through a lot. "Okay everyone," said Kyouko "we must go to bed soon; we have to get up early to go and see Hikaru and pay our respects to grandma". "That's right" said Shigeru.

Before Ichigo went to sleep, she was staring at a photo of her and her grandma together. "From the look of this photo, I can see that your grandma loved you tons Ichigo" said Vanilla. "Yes she did, and I loved her tons too," said Ichigo "and even though she's gone I still love her very much, as well as missing her very much". Vanilla rubbed her cheek against Ichigo's cheek to comfort her, which made Ichigo happy. "Come on Vanilla, we better get some sleep for tomorrow" said Ichigo. Vanilla agreed, and she and Ichigo went to sleep at once.

The next day Ichigo and her family set off for Hikaru's shop in the countryside. "It's been a long time since I visited my mother's shop," said Shigeru "I haven't visited it ever since she died". "Yeah me too" said Kyouko. "I have though;" said Ichigo "I've visited uncle Hikaru many times to continue learning about how to make sweets". "That's true" said Kyouko.

Soon the family arrived at the shop. Hikaru Amano was there waiting for the family to arrive. "Hey everyone, glad you made it" said Hikaru. "Hey big brother" said Shigeru. "Nice seeing you again Hikaru" said Kyouko. "Hi uncle Hikaru" Ichigo and Natsume said together. "Hi Ichigo and Natsume," said Hikaru "my you two grow taller every time I see you. I hear you have been studying at St Marie Academy Ichigo". "That's right uncle," said Ichigo "it is tough there, but I enjoy it there". "I had a feeling you may end up studying there like my mother did," said Hikaru "especially since you have been learning how to make sweets thanks to her and me. That reminds me, all my customers miss your sweets and they hope you will make them again". "Sorry uncle Hikaru," said Ichigo "but I will come here to make them in the holidays like I always do". Hikaru smiled and couldn't wait because he always enjoyed Ichigo's assistance. "Oh I nearly forgot I got everything that you asked me ready for you Ichigo" said Hikaru. "Thank you uncle" said Ichigo.

Ichigo explained that she was going to make some delicious sweets to offer for her grandma, and she had asked Hikaru yesterday to get the ingredients ready for her. Natsume asked Ichigo if she could watch because she had never seen Ichigo make sweets before, and Ichigo accepted that.

First Ichigo gathered strawberries from the strawberry patch outside in the back of the shop. "I'm glad that grandma's strawberry patch is still doing well uncle" said Ichigo. "Well I learnt on how to take care of it properly thanks to you Ichigo" said Hikaru. "Yeah, but I learnt how to take care of it from grandma first" smiled Ichigo. The strawberry patch was Michiko's; she planted it when she first opened up the shop and only used its strawberries for her sweets. Ichigo had loved the strawberry patch for as long she could remember and she learnt how to care for it thanks to Michiko. With the strawberry patch around; Ichigo felt that her grandma was still around watching her. The strawberries were small but they were very delicious. "What strawberries are these Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "These are fraise des bois strawberries," answered Ichigo "my grandma told me that these also grow in the wild too, mainly in Europe. Even though these strawberries are small, they have a delicious taste". "I can feel a lot of love in this garden" said Vanilla. "That's because grandma loved this garden," said Ichigo "and so do I, and that's why I've always made sure that it still lives even though my grandma is gone". Vanilla understood Ichigo's feelings.

Then Ichigo set to work on making her sweets. "What are you making Onee-chan?" asked Natsume. "A sponge cake with Eton mess in the middle and on top" said Ichigo. Eton mess was a mixture of strawberries, meringue and whipped cream all together. "I actually made this cake for grandma one time before she died, so I decided to make for her for an offering". "I remember that," said Hikaru "and grandma loved it too".

She first pre-heated the oven and made the sponge cake mixture with flour, eggs, sugar and butter. Next she placed the patter into a greased baking tin for cakes, and placed it in the oven. While the sponge cake batter was baking in the oven, Ichigo made the meringue with lots egg whites and sugar. Then she piped the soft meringue mixture onto a greased tin and placed that into the oven. While both the meringue and sponge cake were baking, Ichigo got the strawberries and whipped cream ready. After the meringue and sponge cake was done in the oven, Ichigo broke up the meringue and mixed it all to together with the chopped up strawberries and whipped cream. Then when the cake was cool, she cut the cake in half from the middle and spread the Eton mess into the middle and some on top and placed some whole strawberries on top as well for decoration.

Hikaru and Natsume, who had been watching the whole time, were very impressed. "Wow Onee-chan, you are great at this," said Natsume "you were like sparkling when you made this". "I agree," said Hikaru "and I can see that you will defiantly become a great patissiere like grandma was". "Thank you" smiled Ichigo. Vanilla made a recipe card of Ichigo's Eton mess sponge cake and sent it to the queen.

After everything and everyone was set, the Amano family visited Michiko's grave. Michiko was buried in a cemetery site, a few miles away from the shop, and she was in the same grave of her husband who died a long time ago. Hikaru lit the essence, Ichigo placed a piece of her Eton mess cake on the grave and then everyone prayed for Michiko. 'Please continue watching over me grandma' said Ichigo in her mind. Vanilla watched in silent.

After the praying was finished, it was time for the Amano family to leave. Hikaru gave Ichigo a brown book that looked like some diary. "This is grandma's recipe notebook," he said to Ichigo "before she died, grandma asked me to give this to you when the time was right. And now I think it is the right time that you have this". Ichigo noticed that there was some sort of lock pad on the notebook. "I'm afraid I don't know where the key is, so no one, not even I can open it" said Hikaru. "Oh it's okay uncle Hikaru", said Ichigo "just by having grandma's recipe notebook is enough for me. Besides I have the feeling that we will find it one day". "I see" smiled Hikaru. Ichigo held the notebook close to her heart because it made her feel that her grandma's spirit was inside the book.

On the way home, Kyouko drove the car all the way to the St Marie Academy. "It feels good to be back" whispered Vanilla. "Yes it does," said Ichigo "and now we can get to work on practicing and studying for the grand prix". "Okay then" saluted Vanilla. Soon the car parked outside St Marie Academy. "Thanks for the lift mum" said Ichigo and she got ready to head back. "Ichigo be sure to call and tell us of how you have been doing," said Kyouko "I would like to know of how you have been doing and you can call me if you feel stuck". "I understand mum" said Ichigo. This meant that Ichigo and her mum were starting to make some more amends with each other.

When Ichigo headed back to the academy, the sweets princes were there waiting to welcome her back. "Everything all right Amano-san?" asked Sennosuke. "Yes," said Ichigo "everything is all right now". "That's great to hear" smiled Satsuki. So now Ichigo was ready to get back to studying and practicing of making sweets.

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><p>I know this is not what happened in the episode 10 of the anime, but I did say that in this story Ichigo wasn't like what she was in the anime. I don't intend to leave any episode numbers out, so some will have a lot of changes than from the anime. I thought it was sad that Ichigo's grandma's strawberry patch had died, so I wanted it to be alive in this story. Ichigo should have known what the strawberries in her grandma's garden were, especially since she had seen it loads of times in the past.<p> 


	11. The prince's friendship madeleines

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The prince's friendship madeleines<strong>

Today Ichigo and the sweets princes were making madeleines in cooking class. Madeleines were french small, sort of sponge, cakes. While the madeleines were being made, the princes were in thought of something. Ichigo noticed and asked them if something was wrong. "Nothing's wrong Amano-san," said Sennosuke "it's just we remembered that madeleines were the first sweets that we made together when we first entered this school last year". "Oh really?" asked Ichigo "what happened exactly when you three became a group?" "Well to tell you the truth Kashino-kun and Hanabusa-kun didn't really get along at first" said Sennosuke. "Gosh, what happened?" said Ichigo. "It's a long story Amano" said Makato. "Well I like stories," said Ichigo "and I would love to hear all about it". "Okay, then we shall tell you" said Satsuki.

The story began on the day, a year ago, that Makato and Sennosuke entered St Marie Academy for the first time. Sennosuke was excited to start learning. Makato on the other hand was different. Even though he did seem pleased to be in the school, well he was just eager to be top of the school and he didn't believe that making new friends mattered. When Makato and Sennosuke saw the Spirit Queen's statue and learnt of the legend about sweets spirits, Sennosuke hoped that he would be friends with a sweets spirit, but Makato thought it was some fairy tale nonsense.

At that moment they met Satsuki; Satsuki was handing out roses to the girls. Sennosuke and Makato could tell at once that Satsuki was a flirt type. Makato thought that there was no way that he would be friends with Satsuki. Bad news for Makato was that Satsuki was to be his roommate. Satsuki filled the room with roses to welcome Makato to the school, but Makato didn't like it. He thought Satsuki was very annoying and Satsuki thought Makato as a grouchy brat. So it was obvious that Makato and Satsuki weren't going to get along that well. Sennosuke tried to keep the peace but to no avail.

Unfortunately things got worse when it was the first cooking class. Makato, Sennosuke and Satsuki were placed in Group A at once, but Makato and Satsuki were not happy being in the same group. They were learning to make madeleines but Makato and Satsuki started to fight. They argued over the equipment, they made each other spill things like flour and sugar, and then last of all they had a water fight with the taps. Ameya-Sensei was not happy about this.

The sweets princes got punished for their actions. Even though Sennosuke didn't do anything he was still being punished because he was in the same group. They were in detention writing an apology essay. Makato was not happy with this and blamed Satsuki and Satsuki called Makato a monkey. Sennosuke tried to tell them to stop fighting, but it was no good. Makato stomped out of the room, not even bothering to finish his essay.

Makato was starting to practice making chocolate in the cooking room. "Kashino we were banned from coming in here" said Sennosuke. "I came to this school to practice making sweets," said Makato "and I am not letting anything or anyone stop me". Satsuki became cross with Makato. "You are so full of yourself," he said to Makato "and you only care about yourself". "The only thing I care about is becoming a top patissier!" shouted Makato.

It was at that moment that three sweets spirits appeared in front of the boys. Chocolat introduced herself to Makato, Café introduced himself to Satsuki and Caramel introduced herself to Sennosuke. Sennosuke and Satsuki were happy to accept Caramel and Café as their partners, but Makato refused Chocolat. He intended to work to be top patissier on his own.

At that moment Ameya-Sensei appeared. She was not happy that the boys broke the rule of not being allowed in the cooking room, so the sweets princes got more punishment. The punishment was that they weren't allowed to have dinner and leave their dorm, and they were banned from attending cooking class for three days. "Good going!" Satsuki growled to Makato.

That evening the sweets princes just stayed quite in their dorm rooms, feeling hungry. Makato was just staying quiet, Satsuki was reading and Sennosuke was finishing unpacking his stuff. Caramel decided to help Sennosuke and she noticed a green box. Sennosuke explained that it's a gift that his brother Ichita. Caramel opened the box, but what was inside was a scary monster jack in the box. Caramel became so scared from the jack in the box; she flew out of the window and into the forest. Makato, Satsuki and their spirits heard the commotion and Café explained that Caramel had no sense of direction. Sennosuke left the room to find Caramel; even if he wasn't allowed to leave, he couldn't leave Caramel alone. Makato left to help out too; he wasn't the type to admit it but Sennosuke was his friend, and the only real friend that he has ever had. Satsuki was impressed with the fact with what Makato and Sennosuke were doing.

In the forest Caramel had gotten herself lost in the forest and she did not know the way back to the dorms. Fortunately for her Sennosuke found her. "Thank you for founding me Andou" said Caramel, tearfully. "It's no problem," smiled Sennosuke "we are partners after all". Sennosuke and Caramel were just about to find their way back, but then more trouble occurred. Andou slipped into a hole and twisted his ankle, so Andou couldn't get out.

Meanwhile Makato was looking for Sennosuke. Chocolat was following him to help him, but Makato kept in insisting that he didn't need her help. At last Chocolat lost her patience. "Listen I have already decided to have you as my partner," she said, crossly, "and I know that you and I can make our dreams come true together". Makato stared at Chocolat. "Okay, I accept your help" he said. Chocolat was happy to hear those words. Just then they heard a whistle. "It's Andou" said Makato. Sennosuke was whistling for help. As Makato and Chocolat were heading over to where Sennosuke was, the sun went down and the forest became too dark for Makato to see anything. Chocolat used her magic fork to light the way; Makato was surprised by her magic.

They soon found Sennosuke and Caramel. "You are so careless Caramel" said Chocolat. Sennosuke couldn't believe that Makato was here, especially since they would both be expelled for leaving the dorms. Makato saw that Sennosuke was hurt, and set to help at once. He found a very long vine, went into the hole, carried Sennosuke on his back, and they climbed up the vine to get out of the hole. "I'm always relying on you to help me get out of tough situations" Sennosuke said to Makato. "We will graduate and become top patissiers together" said Makato.

They were nearly at the top, but the vine snapped. Before the boys fell, Satsuki grabbed onto them. He had snuck out to help too. Makato couldn't believe that Satsuki had helped out, but he was grateful. The three boys returned back to the dorms as quick as they could, but they feared though that they would be caught sneaking around the dorms. They were found out, but by the chairman. The chairman had been fishing; he loved to fish in the lake at night times. The sweets princes were very hungry by now and the chairman informed them that the cooking rooms are always open 24 hours a day. The boys thought that the chairman was going to punish them, but he didn't. The truth is the chairman could see that the sweets princes would make excellent patissiers in the future, and expelling them was something that he had no intention of.

The boys and spirits went into the cooking room and made madeleines for a midnight snack. The sweets princes worked together with their spirits to make them, and this time the boys got along with each other. So there was no more fighting between Makato and Satsuki, to Sennosuke's relieve. Makato made chocolate madeleines, Sennosuke made green tea madeleines and Satsuki made apple and black tea madeleines. The sprits made drinks to go with the madeleines. Caramel made some caramel tea, Chocolat made hot cocoa and Café made coffee. The boys loved each other's madeleines and it was thanks to that that the boys really opened up to each other and truly became a group.

Ichigo was fascinated by the story and was pleased that the boys did become friends. She then presented her friendship madeleines to the boys; it was raspberry and lemon curd. "These are delicious Ichigo-chan" said Satsuki. "Yes the raspberries and lemon curd are perfect together" said Sennosuke. "The sponge cake is also right too" said Makato. "I'm glad you like them" smiled Ichigo. The sweets princes were happy to have Ichigo as a friend and partner in their group. The spirits were also happy that everything went okay for their partners, and that group A was now a team of four with Ichigo about.

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><p>Sorry for the wait. I know Ichigo did strawberry madeleines, but raspberry madeleines are more common than strawberry madeleines.<p> 


	12. The seven year merry christmas

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The seven year Merry Christmas<strong>

It was nearly Christmas, and the students of St Marie were very busy in the cooking rooms. They were making Christmas cakes for a children's charity. The spirits weren't with Ichigo and the sweets princes; they were back at the sweets kingdom because the sweets kingdom was holding a Christmas party. Ichigo did miss having Vanilla around, but she knew that the spirits will come back soon. Right now she had to concentrate on her Christmas cakes.

Ichigo was making the normal sponge cake Christmas cakes that had strawberries and cream in the middle, and she was making different decorations for them. She made gold and silver stars, Christmas angels, robins with holly and berries, snowmen, Father Christmas with presents, Christmas trees with children and she also made polar bears and penguins, wearing scarves. She carefully placed them on her cakes, making sure they don't break. "Hey Amano, why have you made different decorations?" asked Makato. "Because people like having different decorations on their Christmas cakes," said Ichigo "some like angels, some like snowmen and some like Father Christmas etc". Makato saw the point. He had made chocolate Christmas cakes. Sennosuke and Satsuki liked Ichigo's ideas; they had made yule log Christmas cakes, Satsuki's were made with walnut and Sennosuke's were made with green tea.

Meanwhile Chinatsu and Ikue were looking jealousy at Ichigo again. Ikue had thought of another idea to bully Ichigo. She borrowed a banana skin from Chinatsu; her plan was to make Ichigo slip onto the floor from the banana skin. Ichigo had just turned round to get something and Ikue used this chance to make Ichigo slip. But Ikue underestimated Ichigo; Ichigo saw the banana skin heading towards her way, and quickly kicked it back to Ikue. The banana skin landed in her face. "People don't eat banana skins" Ichigo joked. The other students saw the commotion and laughed at Ikue. Ikue was embarrassed and cross that her trick had been foiled again.

Soon it was time for the students to sell their cakes. Ichigo's cakes started to disappear as much as the sweets prince's cakes did. One couple liked the angels, a mother with children liked the Father Christmas, and a woman liked the robin with holly and berries and so on. By the end of the day all of the cakes were sold and there was a lot of money to go to charity. "Your cakes sold out quick Amano-san" said Sennosuke. "They seemed to like your cake designs" said Makato. "Well Kashino, I did say that people liked different cake designs" said Ichigo. Makato saw that he had been defeated. Group B said nothing as they had seen that Ichigo's cakes had been popular. Besides Ikue felt she had been humiliated enough for one day.

As the gang were walking around the area, Ichigo told the boys about one of the customers she had. "He bought one of the cakes with Christmas angels, but he looked like he was about to cry". "Really? What was wrong?" asked Sennosuke. "I don't know," said Ichigo "he left before I could ask him". Just then she stopped in her tracks; she saw the customer from earlier in the park. The customer was a man, wearing glasses and he looked upset. "That's the man I told you about" she said. She and the boys went over to see if the man was okay.

Just then Makato gasped and then he said that he was Yousuke Sakaguchi, a member of the Miles Jarrett Quintet band. The Miles Jarrett Quintet band was a very famous jazz band in New York City.

Yousuke explained to Ichigo and the boys about his misery. Seven years ago the Miles Jarret band were having a tour in Japan. One day Yosuke got the chance of playing with the band on stage with his trumpet. The band was so impressed with his playing that they invited him to come to New York with them. Yosuke was delighted that he was going to be a member of the band, because it was his dream to join the band and he accepted the offer. Sad news was that only did Yousuke left Japan, he also left his girlfriend Mariko behind. "Even though I was in New York, I never forgot about Mariko. After being in New York with the band for seven years, I finally had the chance to come back here because we're having a tour here in Japan. And I wish to look for Mariko and apologize to her, but I don't have the courage and I'm pretty sure she hates me now".

Ichigo felt sorry for Yousuke. She was about to speak, but Makato spoke instead. "You should go and apologize," he said "even if Mariko is married or how badly you treated her in the past, only you can make things right between you and her". "Kashino's right," said Ichigo "I may not know about Mariko, but I'm sure she never forgot about you either. Besides you said yourself that you never forgot about her while you were in New York, and if an amazing person was brave enough to be part of a famous jazz band, would surely be brave enough to face the woman he loves". Yousuke looked at Makato and Ichigo, and decided that he would apologize to Mariko.

Group A agreed to help Yousuke, but the trouble was that they didn't know where Mariko lived. Yousuke told them where Mariko used to live and work, but the restaurant where she worked at closed and she had moved away from the place she used to live. Yousuke found it hopeless and decided to give up now. To thank the students for trying to help him, he played some music on his trumpet for them.

But while Yousuke was playing music, a woman came up to him; it was Mariko. Mariko ran into Yousuke's arms and cried. "I waited and waited for you to come back," she sobbed "I always believed that you would return again". "I'm sorry Mariko" said Yousuke, holding her tight. Group A was delighted that Yousuke and Mariko had reunited with each other at last. Yousuke and Mariko thanked the students at once for their help. Ichigo asked Mariko for their address. She and the boys decided to make a special christmas cake just for the two of them. Yousuke didn't have the cake he bought from Ichigo anymore, because he gave it to another family earlier.

Ichigo and the boys went back to St Marie Academy and got to work at once. The cake they made was a croquembouche cake. A croquembouche cake was a french cake made from a pile of choux pastry balls, with threads of caramel as a decoration, and modeled into a cone shape. Before Ichigo worked on her Christmas cakes this morning, she explained to the boys about the croquembouche cakes that her grandma used to make for her and her family at Christmas time. Of course Ichigo knew that these cakes were mostly used for weddings and baptisms, but her grandma made these for all sorts of happy occasions. So since this was for a happy reunion between Yousuke and Mariko, Ichigo had decided on this cake and the boys agreed with her plan. "It's obvious that you had inherited the same love and kind heart from your grandma Ichigo-chan" said Satsuki. "Well they say that love is the very special ingredient in cooking" smiled Ichigo.

Yousuke and Mariko were delighted with the croquembouche cake that the students brought for them. The cake was decorated with chocolate flowers and ribbons and there were marzipan figures of Yousuke and Mariko on top. It was like a Christmas tree Yousuke and Mariko invited the group to eat the cake with them, but the group had to go back to St Marie Academy for their school Christmas party.

So this Christmas turned out to be a real Happy Christmas.

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><p>It was typical you know that Ichigo made the croquembouche cake before making her Christmas cakes for the charity. She should have waited till she finished her cakes. I hope you liked the comedy routine between Ichigo and Ikue.<p> 


	13. Happy sweets dream

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Happy sweets dream<strong>

It was the New Year's break. All the students were going home for New Year's Day, except Ichigo. The fact is when Vanilla and the other spirits came back to the school after Christmas, Ichigo asked Vanilla if there was a chance that she could visit the sweets kingdom. Vanilla wasn't sure if it was allowed for a human to visit the sweets kingdom, so she contacted the queen for permission. Good news was that the queen accepted Vanilla's permission to bring Ichigo to the sweets kingdom, as long as she didn't cause trouble. So Ichigo and Vanilla agreed to go to the sweets kingdom together. Ichigo had told her family and the sweets princes that she was spending the New Year with a friend, but she didn't tell them the truth because they wouldn't have had believed her about visiting the sweets kingdom if she told them.

That day Ichigo and Vanilla got ready to go to the sweets kingdom. Ichigo had made strawberry shortcake for the queen to thank her for letting her come to the sweets kingdom; it would have been rude to not take a thank you present. Vanilla opened up the oven. "We can get to the sweets kingdom from here" she said. Vanilla had explained that there were lots of entrances to the sweets kingdom from St Marie Academy, and the oven was one of them. Ichigo found it confusing, but with magic anything is possible. Vanilla used her magical spoon to shrink Ichigo to Vanilla's size. "Cute," said Ichigo, looking at herself "I look like a fairy-tale character". "Oh one more thing" said Vanilla. She gave Ichigo a pin with a royal seal on it. "What's this?" asked Ichigo. "That's an important pin the queen gave me," said Vanilla "if a sweets spirit finds out you are a human, you have to show that to them. It proves that we got permission from the queen that you were allowed to visit the queen, so don't lose that". Ichigo understood and promised not to lose it. Then with one more swing of the magical spoon Vanilla transported her and Ichigo into the sweets kingdom.

Ichigo and Vanilla were on a train to the sweets kingdom; the train was connected to all the entrances, so now the train was picking up more passengers. The last passengers turned out to be Chocolat, Caramel and Café. "What are you doing here Amano?" asked Chocolat. Vanilla explained that she had permission from the queen to have Ichigo visit the kingdom. Ichigo showed the pin for proof. "Well I hope you enjoy yourself here Ichigo" said Café. Ichigo found out at once that the sweets kingdom was indeed a land of sweets. She saw a chocolate waterfall, a river of candy and cotton candy clouds.

The spirits showed Ichigo the castle, where the queen lived. Café also explained that behind the castle was the academy where the spirits go to learn about making sweets. "It's also there where spirits get permission to go to the human world to find our partners" said Café. "And I take it that's when you guys can become royal patissiers in the sweets kingdom, if you work hard, right?" said Ichigo. The sprits nodded happily because they all wanted to be royal patissiers. Just then Chocolat reminded the others of why they came to the kingdom. "I take it the kingdom is doing something to celebrate the New Year right?" asked Ichigo. "That's correct," said Caramel "but we call this celebration the Newear celebration". Ichigo was puzzled with that name. The spirits explained that on New Year's Eve all the spirits in the kingdom get together to make sweets, present them to the queen and then they all eat the sweets together. Ichigo found it all very exciting and asked if she could help out. The spirits agreed.

The first thing to do was to gather all the ingredients they would need for the sweets, so they went to the forest. Ichigo found it a very strange forest; marzipan fruit grew on trees, chocolate bananas grew on trees, coffee came out of a tree and there were vanilla pods in some patches, in the shape of cabbages. 'This place is weird, but I like it' thought Ichigo. Now Ichigo wasn't allowed to help out in making sweets, so her job was to carry the ingredients even though the basket was heavy. She didn't complain though; she had carried heavy bags before.

Suddenly Ichigo got trapped in a net. "Hey what's going on here!?" she shouted. Three sweets spirits turned up; they were both boys and strangely enough they looked like Makato, Satsuki and Sennosuke. They both had spoons, but they were wooden and they weren't magical at all. The Makato look alike was called Kasshi. The Sennosuke look alike was called Andy and the Satsuki look alike was called Narci. "It's the jerks!" exclaimed Vanilla. "What do you three want?" demanded Chocolat. "You're in our territory, so we are taking back the ingredients" said Kasshi. "Whatever grows in this forest belongs to everyone" argued Caramel. "Geez you guys are still playing tricks like this," said Chocolat "yet you are supposed to be studying in the academy. You three are pathetic". "Shut up!" shouted Kasshi "we will take the ingredients and the girl". Before the Jerks left, they threw a chocolate bomb at the spirits; the bomb exploded at chocolate went everywhere, and the Jerks were gone, along with Ichigo. At that time the sprit called Honey, who was Mari's spirit, turned up. Honey was a top sweets spirit and everyone looked up to her. She had a magical honey dipper utensil, instead of a spoon or fork. Vanilla told Honey what had happened and Honey agreed to help as well as sharing her ingredients.

Meanwhile Ichigo was still trapped in the net and she kept on struggling to try and set herself free. Andy and Narci, who were carrying the net, were having trouble with concentrating thanks to her. "Hey what are you to doing?" said Kasshi. "Sorry Kasshi," said Andy "but this girl is no pushover". Just then the net snapped, thanks to Ichigo's struggling, and she was free. "What's with you three?!" she shouted "stealing ingredients like that and kidnapping girls. You three are the worst!" The Jerks saw that Ichigo didn't have any wings. "Your wings haven't grown yet" said Narci. "Never mind they will grow soon" said Andy, kindly. "We shall do whatever we want girl!" shouted Kasshi. 'These spirits remind me of Kashino, Andou and Hanabusa' thought Ichigo.

At that moment the Jerks were covered in hard candy; Honey and Vanilla had turned up. "You three are still causing mischief I see," said Honey "if you wish to make sweets and have your spoons again, you should go back to the academy to study instead of causing trouble". "Shut up Honey pig!" shouted Kasshi, rudely. He and the others grabbed the ingredients and ran off again. Vanilla introduced Ichigo to Honey and explained about her permission from the queen for Ichigo to visit the sweets kingdom. "What do you think of the sweets kingdom Amano?" asked Honey. "I find it wonderful and really fun," answered Ichigo "and if I could, I would like to visit it every day". Honey smiled. "Then enjoy the rest of the day here" she said, and she left to gather more ingredients.

It was time for Vanilla, Chocolat, Caramel and Café to start working on their sweets at the academy with the other spirits, so Ichigo decided to take a look around the town. There were many sweet shops in the town, and Ichigo wanted to sink her teeth into them at once. But before she could, she noticed Kasshi sneaking about in town. 'Hmm I have the feeling that he and the others are up to something' she thought. She couldn't go and tell Vanilla and the others as they were busy, so she decided to follow Kasshi now.

She followed Kasshi to a forest, filled with tall purple flowers. Problem was the flowers were so tall; Ichigo had trouble trying to keep up with Kasshi as he could fly and she couldn't. A second later she lost track of Kasshi. "Oh no, now what shall I do?" said Ichigo. Suddenly a sweets spirit appeared. This spirit was an old woman spirit, and she had a very pale face and wore a long dark brown cloak. "Um can you help me please?" asked Ichigo "I've lost my way in this forest". The spirit pointed Ichigo the way to the direction where Kasshi went. "Thank you" said Ichigo. The spirit handed Ichigo a spoon; it was an old metallic spoon and it had a round decoration on the top of the handle, with a capital M on. "Uh is this your spoon?" asked Ichigo. "This spoon will open the door to your future" said the spirit, and then she magically vanished. "Uh thank you" said Ichigo, who was puzzled with this and placed the spoon on her back.

Thanks to the sweets spirit, Ichigo found her way to where Kasshi, Andy and Narci were. The Jerks were living in some sort of ruined house away from the kingdom. Ichigo went up to the door and tried to listen on what they were up to. Apparently the Jerks were planning on doing something to crash the event tonight. Suddenly the door opened and Ichigo fell onto the floor; Kasshi and the others had noticed that someone was eavesdropping on them, so they opened the door to see who it was. "What are you doing here?" demanded Kasshi. "I saw you in the town, so I came to see what you three were up to now" said Ichigo. "What we do is none of your business!" shouted Kasshi. 'This spirit is like Kashino's twin' thought Ichigo.

Andy and Narci served tea and their homemade cookies to Ichigo, while Kasshi flew off somewhere. "Your cookies are delicious," said Ichigo "but why aren't you three at the academy? I mean I can tell that you three can make delicious sweets, but yet you three just cause trouble and your spoons are wooden instead of metal". Andy explained that sometime ago they participated in a sweets contest. But Kasshi stole a recipe of a royal court patissier, and they used the recipe to win the contest. They won of course, but the queen found out and was angry, and then she confiscated their spoons. "That's no wonder the queen did that," said Ichigo "copying and stealing another person's sweets is a bad thing to do. And not to mention that just makes you a cheater". "Yes, but Narci and I didn't know what Kasshi did at that time," said Andy "and because of that Kasshi can't forgive himself for putting us through something like that". "But if you present these delicious cookies of yours to the queen, I'm pretty sure that she will forgive you three and give you back your spoons," said Ichigo "sometimes the best way to apologize is to make it right; taking action is stronger than words". "We've said that to Kasshi lots of times," said Narci "but he is too stubborn to listen". Ichigo wished there was something that could be done about this, but it was getting late and she needed to go back to Vanilla. So she said goodbye to the Jerks and set off back to the castle.

It was dark now and the celebration was starting. The spirits had finished their sweets and were now adding sweets magic for a finishing touch. Vanilla saw the sweets spirits Maron, who she told Ichigo about, and told her that there was a human who had the same mean personality as her. Maron, being spoilt and snobbish like Miya, thought that maybe she would meet Miya if she felt like it. Just then Ichigo turned up. "Your late Ichigo," said Vanilla "the celebration is starting". Ichigo told Vanilla about the old sweets spirit who gave her the spoon and about the Jerks and their plan of messing up the celebration. "We better tell Honey-sempai at once" said Vanilla.

But it was too late; the jerks were arriving at the celebration, riding on some rocket powered dragon made out of all sorts of cookies. "We will ruin the Newear celebration with this creation of ours" smiled Kasshi. "Oh no they're here" said Ichigo. Vanilla told Honey what was going on at once, but Honey couldn't do anything. A spirits magic was only to be used for making sweets, not for fighting. Ichigo didn't want the Jerks to ruin the celebration. So she ran out in front of the gates and yelled at the Jerks to stop. The Jerks saw Ichigo and Kasshi moved to put the brakes on at once; she didn't want to hurt Ichigo or anyone. Unfortunately the Jerks couldn't stop in time and both their creation and the big sweets that the spirits made all got destroyed. Ichigo was okay though; she managed to avoid getting hurt just in time. "For goodness sake!" shouted Chocolat "those three should be punished for good this time".

At that moment the queen turned up. Ichigo curtsied to the queen, while the Jerks looked nervously at her. They felt for sure that they would be heavily punished this time. Some of the cookies from the Jerks dragon had ended up on the balcony, where the queen was standing, at the queen tried one. She found it delicious and gave the Jerks back their spoons. The Jerks were grateful and bowed to the queen. Next the queen turned to Ichigo and magically gave her a golden badge, that had a blue decoration with a capital M. "The queen was grateful for the strawberry shortcake you made for her Ichigo," explained Honey "and because of your brave and kind heart you have permission to come to the sweets kingdom whenever you like". Ichigo and Vanilla were delighted and thanked the queen at once. Then the celebration went on as planned.

Once the celebration was over, Ichigo and Vanilla went back to St Marie Academy to bed. Ichigo thought that tonight's New Year Celebration was the best celebration she ever had. She was confused about the old spoon the spirit gave her, but she felt that there was something about the spoon, something very important.

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><p>I hope you liked this chapter. In case you don't know yet; the old woman sweets spirit, who gave Ichigo the spoon, is her grandma's spirit.<p> 


	14. The cake grand prix begins

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The cake grand prix begins<strong>

A few weeks after the New Year started, there was an announcement that the cake grand prix will start soon. "So it's that time of year already huh?" said Rumi. "I better prepare myself for this, since Kashino, Andou and Hanabusa asked me to be on their team this year" said Ichigo. "You better Ichigo," said Rumi "the cake grand prix is not something to take lightly". "I know," said Ichigo "I found out on the school computers about what happens in the cake grand prix; like you have to win a lot of different rounds to get to the finals, and that you end up with opponents that are at a higher skill than yours like the high schoolers". "Yes and you must not make any flaws, not one, when you are making the sweets either, or you lose points" said Rumi. Just then the sweets princes turned up. "In the school kitchens pronto Amano" said Makato. Ichigo had a feeling that the boys wanted to chat with her about the cake grand prix, so she went with the boys.

"This is about the cake grand prix right?" asked Ichigo, when they went into the kitchens. "Yes, the grand prix is only 15 days away," said Makato "so you will be practicing under our guide". "I thought it would come to this," said Ichigo "which is a good thing why I did a lot of studying and practicing myself". She opened up her school bag and took out a few notebooks out. Inside were a lot of notes about the basics of sweets like the differences with sugar, like brown sugar and caster sugar, the differences of butter with salted butter and unsalted butter etc. There were also notes about the makings of different sweets like what you should add and what to do with the ingredients before you make the sweets. And there were also important things like temperatures, timings and other stuff. "Wow Ichigo you certainly have studied a lot about the basics" said Satsuki. "These are what I learnt ever since my grandma first taught me how to make sweets," said Ichigo "and even I know that taking notes of things is very important, especially when it comes to studying". Caramel, Chocolat and Café were impressed too. Vanilla smiled proudly; she had seen the notes already. Makato looked through the books. "Good," he said "you understand the basics, but you will be practicing with making things like chocolate, candy sculptures, mousses and piping". "Got it" said Ichigo. Ichigo knew that this would be tough, but if she was going to be in the cake grand prix, she understood that she would have to go through lots of harsh training.

The first thing to do was exercise to build up the muscles; it included running 1 lap around the school grounds, fifty set ups and fifty push ups in the mornings and the evenings. This was Makato's set up and he intended to make it harsh. Ichigo started to smirk. "Let's show him Vanilla" she whispered. "Yeah show him what we had been doing every morning ever since you entered this school" smiled Vanilla. Ichigo did the fifty push ups and fifty set ups with no complaining and when it came to the running, she stayed in pace with Kashino, but near the end she ran fast in front of him. "Eat my dust!" she shouted. "Hey!" shouted Makato. Ichigo and Vanilla found it funny. When it was over Ichigo explained to Makato that she had practiced running on the school grounds every morning ever since she entered the school. "What?" gasped Makato. "Sorry Kashino, but I am not as weak as you think I am so there" smirked Ichigo. "That's right" said Vanilla. Kashino felt she should make the training harsher.

The next part of training was learning the differences with eggs, flour and sugar with Sennosuke. Ichigo easily passed that because she had studied that lot of times. With Satsuki, the training was making things like rose petals out of icing and piping cream and icing to make cake decorations. Makato also trained Ichigo with tempering with chocolate. "What temperature is the temperature when melting chocolate?" he asked as a quiz question. "No more than 60c" answered Ichigo. "And white chocolate?" asked Makato. "No more than between 35c and 40c" answered Ichigo. Makato could see that Ichigo had been studying well. Soon the first day of training was over with.

"You did very well Ichigo-chan" said Satsuki. "Yes and you know much I didn't need to teach you much" said Sennosuke. "I didn't lie when I said that I was going to study and practice a lot for this cake grand prix" said Ichigo. "I'm glad you are taking this seriously" said Makato, bluntly. "Ichigo became cross with that comment. "Listen to me Kashino," she said "I can understand that you don't want any mishaps to happen in the cake grand prix, like with Koshiro last year. But let me tell you something; I am not Miya Koshiro and I already know how serious the cake grand prix is". "Ah ha" said Vanilla, crossing her arms. Makato just stared; he already knew that Ichigo was no Miya Koshiro and how she was serious on studying to be a patissiere. But being a proud and stubborn type, he couldn't put it down to words. Over the next ten days Ichigo studied and practiced more for the grand prix.

One night Ichigo was coming out of the school nurses office. She had blisters on her hands and just put blister plasters on them. "I'm glad the nurse had lots of blister plasters" said Ichigo, looking at her blistered hands. "It's common though for patissiers to get blisters as well as cuts," said Vanilla "they are proof of your hard work as a patissiere Ichigo". "Maybe so, but I hate blisters," said Ichigo "they feel itchy and uncomfortable, and if they burst they sting like hell. I got a burst blister one time and it was the most painful experience of my life". Just then she saw Mari practicing on something in the cooking room. Ichigo entered the room and asked Mari if she was entering the cake grand prix too. Mari said she was; she didn't enter last year but this time she was. "I have seen you do a lot of training for the cake grand prix," she said "and I hope that you will make it to the finals". She noticed Ichigo's blistered hands. "You defiantly have the hands of a patissiere Amano". Mari felt that this year's cake grand prix would be interesting with Ichigo participating in it.

After five more days, it was the time for the cake grand prix to begin. The chairman explained that a lot more teams from the middle school section had entered in the cake grand prix this year, so the middle school teams had to take a preliminary test to enter the grand prix. Karashima-sensei explained about the test; it was a test on what the students knew about basics of making sweets and they had to answer four questions right to past the test. Apparently this test was a very harsh one. If someone got just one question wrong it would be a failure, and if one member from the teams failed; the whole team would be disqualified. Ichigo did feel a bit nervous as there was nothing like this last year, but she stood firm. 'I have practiced and studied a lot for this,' she thought 'I will pass this test'. Vanilla told Ichigo that it was against the rules for the spirits to help their partners, but Ichigo told Vanilla not to worry.

Soon it was time for the test to start and the students went through the doors, three by three, to start. Ichigo calmly walked through the door when it was her turn. First part of the test was a tasting room and there was a piece of pound cake on a plate. 'This must be part of the cake, so I better pay attention to the taste of this cake' she thought. She slowly ate and savoured every bit of the pound cake. Then she went into another room called the butter room. There on the table were three blocks of different butters and the question was what butter was used. "I thought it would be this sort of test," said Ichigo "then it's a good thing I savoured the pound cake". Butter A was salted butter, butter B was unsalted butter and butter C was fermented unsalted butter. "It's C," said Ichigo "I recognize the taste of the fermented unsalted butter from the cake". The next room was the sugar room and the question was what sugar was used. Sugar A was granulated sugar, sugar B was johakuto sugar; johakuto sugar was a japanese sugar and was sweeter than granulated sugar. Sugar C was brown sugar. "It's A," said Ichigo "the butter was rich so granulated sugar would be used. As my uncle Hikaru told me; the richer the butter, the less sweet the sugar". The third room was the egg room and the question was what egg would be good to use. Cracking the eggs weren't allowed, but Ichigo knew how to tell because she had practiced eggs with Sennosuke. She spun the three eggs to see which one was a boiled egg; boiled eggs would keep on spinning but non boiled eggs wouldn't. Egg A was a boiled one but the other two weren't. Next she held egg B and C towards the light; this was to see if one egg was rotten and one was good. Egg B was good while C was rotten, so the answer was egg B. The last room was the flour room and the question was which flour. "Okay," said Ichigo "these three bowls of flour would be brad flour, all-purpose flour and cake flour. Now, different flour has a different amount of glutton in them, and the way to find out which flour has the most or least glutton is to knead it to see which one is more or less flexible. There was a bowl of water on the table and Ichigo used it to knead the flour. She needed to hurry because her time was nearly running out. Flour A turned out to be bread flour because it was flexible. Flour B was all-purpose flour because it turned out so and so. Flour C was cake flour because it was soft and hard to keep together. "It's C" she said.

Ichigo and Vanilla prayed that door C was the correct answer.

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><p>Ichigo should have practiced as soon as the boys chose her to be in their team for the cake grand prix. I also don't think she was serious enough when she started. To let you know Kashino and Ichigo will be a couple but won't admit their feelings till later.<p> 


	15. Rose water of memories

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Rose water of memories<strong>

In the correct room where all those who passed the test were the sweets princes were still waiting for Ichigo to join them. "She better have not messed up" said Makato. "Have faith in Amano-san" said Sennosuke. "Yes remember she studied everything for this" said Satsuki. Just then Ichigo turned up. 'I got it right' she thought, once she saw the boys. There were a lot of other teams who passed and there was also a lot of other teams who failed. "You did it Ichigo-chan" said Satsuki. "Congratulations" said Sennosuke. "Just as expected" said Makato. "I take it you three boys believe and trust in me now?" asked Ichigo. "Of course" said Satsuki and Sennosuke. Makato just nodded.

Suddenly Ichigo was knocked onto the floor by someone. "Hey what did you do that for?!" she shouted. The one who knocked her down was a boy, with brown purple hair, and he looked a year older than Ichigo. "It's childish for a second year like you to be happy over a mere test" said the boy. "Oh yeah," said Ichigo "well it's childish for a third year like you to knock people about, especially those who are younger than you". The boy and Ichigo stared angrily at each other. "Come on Ichigo-chan," said Satsuki "don't bother with him". Ichigo felt like paying the jerk out, but she didn't know how.

The results of the tests were in. Ten third year groups, five second year groups and one first year group from the middle school section had passed the test; this made sixteen groups. The chairman explained what the first challenge in the cake grand prix was; it was a pound cake making challenge. All members in each group had to make a pound cake each (so each team would me making four pound cakes in total). And the theme for the pound cakes had to be family. Karashima-sensei showed a big board, which showed line ups of each round of the competition. There were four rounds to get to the finals. Karashima-sensei also presented of which group would be facing who. This was nerve-wrecking especially since you could never tell who you would be challenging, until you do find out. "Each representative of each group, please come up on stage when your group is called" said the Chairman.

Ichigo's group turned out to be called Team Ichigo, which meant Ichigo was the representative of the group. "Sorry for keeping this a secret from you Amano-san," said Sennosuke "but we decided to call our team, Team Ichigo". "Yes because it has a nice impact to it" said Satsuki. Ichigo couldn't believe that she was the representative, especially since this was her first time in the cake grand prix, but she wasn't complaining about it.

She headed for the stage but then she got nudged on the arm. It was the same boy who knocked her on the arm earlier. The boy's name was Takeshi Ichimatsu and he was the representative of Team Ichimatsu. The other members were a brown haired girl named Ryou Amikawa, a blond boy named Reimata Shima and a blacked haired boy named Shige Yokoshima. Team Ichimatsu was the opponent for Team Ichigo in the 1st round. "As a little girl is my opponent, this win will be a piece of cake" said Takeshi, rudely. Ichigo was cross. "I doubt that you will win you big baby" she said. "Hey!" said Takeshi. "I would normally shake hands with an opponent," said Ichigo "but I won't shake hands with someone like you". The sweets princes came to her side to back her up. "If you three princes lose, then you shall be called the loser princes" said Takeshi, rudely. Team Ichigo didn't like Team Ichimatsu one bit.

In the cooking room, the spirits congratulated Team Ichigo for making it passed the preliminary test. "You four were great" said Caramel. "Well done" said Café. "I guess miracles do happen with you Amano" said Chocolat. Vanilla got cross. "Ichigo studies and practices harder than you would ever know, so there Chocolat!" she shouted and stuck her tongue out. She and Chocolat were about to fight, but Caramel stopped them.

Satsuki had bought a piece of Team Ichimatsu's pound cakes from the Salon de Marie. This was for research on Team Ichimatsu. "I'm surprised that these are sold in the Salon de Marie," said Ichigo "I mean I thought only sweets made from the high year students are sold in there". "Oh no," said Sennosuke "sweets made from the middle school section can be sold there too, but only if the sweets are acceptable by the high school council". "And Team Ichimatsu's pound cakes were approved by the council" said Makato. Takeshi's cake was japanese chestnut, Ryou's cake was chocolate, Reimata's was coffee marble and Shige's was nuts. After trying them, Team Ichigo admitted that they were in fact delicious, but this was not a time for praising. "What pound cakes will you four be making?" asked Caramel. "Since this theme is family, I will make a strawberry pound cake because children love that" said Ichigo. Makato decided on doing a bitter chocolate and chestnut cake that was for adults, and Sennosuke decided on a sweet fermented bean green tea cake which was for the elderly. Satsuki wasn't sure on which pound cake to make yet.

Next day Ichigo, Makato and Sennosuke started to practice on their pound cakes. The strawberry, chocolate and chestnut and the green tea bean cake were soon finished and they were delicious. Vanilla, Chocolat and Caramel sent the recipe cards of the pound cakes to the queen. Satsuki was working on a rose pound cake, but he wasn't satisfied with it. He asked the others to try it. They pointed out that the cake didn't smell like a rose because the heat of the oven evaporated the natural rose water that Satsuki used. "Maybe you should use rose jam and rose syrup," said Ichigo "they have a lovely smell of rose". "Yeah maybe" Satsuki sighed. Ichigo noticed that something was wrong with Satsuki and she became worried about him. She had a sniff of the rose water and thought it had a really nice rose scent.

At that moment Team Ichimatsu turned up. "Eww what's that smell?" said Takeshi, rudely. "Smells like perfume" said Reimata. "Yeah well it stinks" said Takeshi. They saw the rose pound cake and Takeshi spoke rudely about it. "As your senior, I'll give you some advice," he said "this is not a perfume contest and you will never win with cheap scents like this".

Ichigo was furious with Takeshi's rudeness and she wanted to hit him badly with a frying pan. But the sweets princes pulled her to outside. "You mustn't do that!" said Makato "not only would you be disqualified from the cake grand prix, you would be expelled". "But we can't let Team Ichimatsu get away with their rudeness" said Ichigo. "And that's why we need to defeat them," said Makato "we can get even with them by defeating them". The others agreed, except Satsuki; he was thinking about something. "Excuse me all of you, I need to cool my head" he said and he left. Café followed him. Now Ichigo was starting to worry about Satsuki.

Ichigo couldn't concentrate on her strawberry pound cake. "Please excuse me guys, but I'm too worried about Hanabusa-kun to concentrate," she said "I'm going to talk to him". "Amano" said Makato. "He is our friend and teammate, and true friends help each other out" said Ichigo. Just then Café turned up. "Satsuki told me to leave him alone" he said, tearfully. "Come with me Café," said Ichigo "you, Vanilla and I are both going to talk to him". The three left the room at once to see Satsuki. "What are you thinking Ichigo?" asked Vanilla. "Well to tell you the truth, I think Hanabusa-kun has been thinking about his dead father all this time," said Ichigo "since the theme for our pound cakes is family, I reckon that Hanabusa-kun wants to make a rose pound cake because of that". "That does make sense," said Vanilla "especially since he told you about his dad, being a rose grower, sometime after you attended here". "He told me about that too," said Café "and last night he was staring at the rose water bottle for ages". "Then my guess is that rose water is a memento of his dad" said Ichigo.

They found Satsuki sitting by the rose bushes; as it was still winter there were no roses on the bushes. "Hanabusa-kun," said Ichigo "the reason you want to make a rose pound cake is because of your dad right?" You can't fool me because since the theme for our cakes is family, I can tell that you have been thinking about your dad. Remember I think about my grandma all the time too". Satsuki stared at Ichigo. "You are right Ichigo-chan," he said "it is because of my dad that I wanted to make a rose cake. The truth is when my dad was alive we used to have tea in our rose garden all the time. Both my parents loved sweets and my mum baked cakes for us all the time and I ended up growing being surrounded by roses and cakes". "I remember you telling me about being surrounded by roses all your life" said Ichigo. "Yes and it was because of that, that I decided to be a patissier and make rose sweets in my own shop," said Satsuki "but I doubt I can make that dream come true". "Why though?" asked Ichigo "I mean you make excellent sweets and you are an expert on roses". "It's because of my father's death a few years ago," said Satsuki "he was in Paris at that time for work. He bought me my bottle of rose water, because he remembered my dream of making a rose cake. He was heading for the airport to come back home, but it was raining hard and my dad ended up sliding into some lamp posts, while trying to avoid hitting a child that ran into the road. Then he died from the car injuries. This rose water was the last thing he bought for me so I've kept it ever since". Ichigo, Vanilla and Café felt sorry for Satsuki. "It was also that time that I decided to be nicer to my mother and all other girls". "Oh I see," said Ichigo "so that's why you act narcissistic all the time then".

Some chuckling was heard from behind a bush; it was Makato and Sennosuke. They had been worried about Satsuki too, and they intended to find out about Satsuki's problem because he was their friend. "We didn't know the story about your dad" said Sennosuke. "Well it's my fault for not telling you earlier" said Satsuki. Satsuki placed a drop of the rose water into some tea and asked Ichigo to try it. 'This tea is delicious,' she thought 'this rose scent makes me understand why Hanabusa-kun's dad wanted to bring the rose water to him at once". "The reason I want to make a rose pound cake is because I would like to base it on a family having a fun time in a rose garden" said Satsuki. "Then we shall make it" said Ichigo. "I agree," said Sennosuke "it is a wonderful idea". The spirits liked the idea too. "We shall help you," said Makato "because we are your friends". Satsuki felt at ease with good friends beside him.

Next day Team Ichigo was working on their pound cakes again. Unfortunately Satsuki still couldn't get his rose pound cake right; the scent still kept on evaporating from the cake after it was baked. That evening Satsuki was by the schools lake and he felt like giving up on the rose pound cake. "My father left the rose water to me, but I can't make any use with it," he said "this water brings nothing but unpleasant memories of my dad's funeral. I wish that I didn't wish to make rose cakes. It's this rose water's fault that my dad died".

Satsuki was about to throw the rose water into the lake, but Ichigo shouted at him to stop. Ichigo, Makato and Sennosuke had been worried about Satsuki and they followed him to the lake to check on him. The rose water bottle felt out of Satsuki's hand and ended up falling towards the lake. Ichigo bravely grabbed onto it to save it, but she ended up falling into the lake.

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><p>I did say that Ichigo was the speaking up type in this story. I couldn't leave out the falling into the lake bit because I liked that bit.<p> 


	16. Sweet rose memory

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Sweet rose memory<strong>

After Ichigo fell into the lake, Makato jumped in to help her. Satsuki and Sennosuke watched in worry as Makato and Ichigo came to the surface. The rose water was okay; the lid was sealed tight. Satsuki got angry looks from Ichigo and Makato because of what he was going to do. When Ichigo and Makato tried to dry themselves off with a towel, Satsuki admitted that he was going to give up on trying making a rose pound cake. "It's no good," he said "I can't seem to get it right".

Ichigo slapped Satsuki on the face. "Don't you dare think about giving up on the rose cake!" she shouted "it's quite clear that your dad was desperate to get the rose water to you before he died. Making rose cakes was your dream and your dad wanted you to achieve your dream. He may be gone, but that doesn't mean you should give up on the dream; your dad in heaven would be disappointed if you do". Satsuki stared at Ichigo and saw that she was right. "Okay, I'll try again" said Satsuki. Ichigo and the others were pleased to hear that. Just then Ichigo realized that her clothes started to smell because the lake water soaked her all through. "Yuck," said Ichigo "I'll have to give these clothes a good wash to get the smell out". Just then she had a thought. "I think I have an idea".

Ichigo and the boys went back to the cooking room. Ichigo explained that maybe they should try soaking the pound cake through the rose water, after it was baked. Satsuki thought that might work too, so after he baked the pound cake again he poured rose syrup and rose water into a tin. Then he soaked the pound cake thoroughly with it and then everyone tried it. This time it really did taste and smell like roses and Satsuki had added rose jam to it as well. "You did it Satsuki," said Café "you made your rose pound cake". The sweets princes felt for sure that they would win the first round tomorrow.

But Ichigo was looking thoughtful. "Is something wrong Ichigo-chan?" asked Satsuki. "Yes, Kashino, Andou-kun, you and I need to change our cakes," said Ichigo "you see the four cakes aren't even with each other. Even when you eat the pieces together the tastes will fight against each other, like the whole family is in a big argument". "It's true actually," said Sennosuke "the cakes are based on different members of a family. So what should we do?" "We shall use Hanabusa-kun's rose cake as the subject, but we shall change the Kashino's cake, Andou-kun's cake and my cake to support it" said Ichigo. "We only have tonight to change it," said Makato "but let's do it". The rest of Team Ichigo agreed. The sweets spirits agreed with the plan too and offered to help. So Team Ichigo worked on through the whole night to perfect their rose cake.

Next day it was time for Team Ichigo's match against Team Ichimatsu. The cooking class room in the middle school section was where the middle school grand prix tournament was being held, and everything was ready. The ingredients were all set up and ready, the judges table was set up and there was also a big score board. Everyone in the audience couldn't wait for the match to start. Team Ichimatsu, in their team uniform, were ready, but Team Ichigo hadn't arrived yet.

Team Ichigo, in their team uniform, were ready too. But because they were up all night working on their cakes, there were tired. Ichigo couldn't stop yawning. "Fight your sleepiness with fighting spirit Amano" said Makato. "Speak for yourself Kashino," said Ichigo "your shadowy eyes make you look like a panda". "Shut up" said Makato, rubbing his eyes. He didn't want to admit his tiredness. Just then the spirits turned up with cups of coffee for them. It was Café's extra bitter coffee, but it did make their drowsiness go away. "We better go," said Sennosuke "it's almost time for our match". "Good luck all of you" said the spirits. As they weren't allowed to help their partners, they decided to watch from outside.

Team Ichigo turned up just in time. Karashima-sensei explained what the task and theme was, and he told the teams that they had two hours to make them. He also said that the five judges would taste the cakes afterwards, and the scores for taste, technique and theme will be displayed on the board. "Two circles will mean excellent, a circle will mean very good, a triangle will mean good and an x will mean bad". The five judges were the chairman, Karashima-sensei, Ameya-sensei and two other teachers. "Have you made your air freshener cake yet?" asked Takeshi, rudely. He was talking about Satsuki's cake. "Yes we have," said Ichigo, calmly "and it will beat your cake".

Soon the match started. Team Ichimatsu wasted no time on their cakes; being very skilled. They were making the pound cakes they sold at the Salon de Marie; Takeshi with chestnut, Ryou with chocolate, Reimata with coffee marble and Shige with nuts. Rumi and Kana, who were in the audience, were commenting Team Ichimatsu. "They are all using high class ingredients" said Kana. "You're right," said Rumi "it will be tough for Team Ichigo's cakes to beat that".

Team Ichigo were working calmly on their pound cakes too. But Ichigo, Makato and Sennosuke were using different ingredients. Ichigo was making a peach pound cake, instead of of a strawberry pound cake. Makato was making a white chocolate and nut pound cake, instead of a dark chocolate and chestnut cake. Sennosuke was using black teach instead of green tea. It was clear that they did change the menu of their pound cakes. Satsuki was making his rose pound cake.

Once all the pound cakes were cooked, Team Ichimatsu's cakes looked delicious and luxurious, but Team Ichigo's cakes looked plain and Satsuki had enough time to place his cake into the mixture of rose syrup and rose water.

Soon two hours were up and the competitors had to stop what they were doing now. Team Ichimatsu believed that their win was in the bag as Team Ichigo's cakes looked plain and simple compared to theirs. Now it was time for judging and Team Ichimatsu was first. "Please organize the cakes onto one dish" said Karashima-sensei. Team Ichimatsu placed their pieces of cakes on the dish, looking like a flower. "Our cakes are based upon a family enjoying an autumn night together" said Takeshi. The judges found the pound cakes very delicious and agreed that they tasted like a family together on an autumn night. They got a red circle on the taste, two circles on the technique and a red circle on the theme.

Next was Team Ichigo's turn. Satsuki cut the pieces of pound cakes and arranged it to look like a big rose. "We've based our cakes on a family playing in a rose garden together" said Ichigo. The judges were impressed and tried the cakes at once. They found the pound cakes very delicious, especially the rose cake. "The flavours of the rose pound cake, peach pound cake, chocolate and nut pound cake and black tea pound cake go perfectly together" said the Chairman. The other judges agreed. Team Ichigo got two circles on the taste, a red circle on the technique and two circles on the theme. They had won the first round.

Team Ichimatsu couldn't believe that their cakes lost and they wanted to know why. "Team Ichimatsu your pound cakes were magnificent," said Karashima-sensei "but your flavours weren't even with each other; they were fighting against each other. Team Ichigo made their cakes harmonize with each other. Please taste the cake and see for yourselves". When Team Ichimatsu tried the cake, they saw that Karashima-sensei was right and admitted their defeat. The audience was happy for Team Ichigo's victory. So was Vanilla, Chocolat, Café and Caramel, and they did recipe cards for the pound cakes and sent them to the queen.

After the match was all over, Ichigo and the boys were having a rose cake tea party, made with their winning cakes, in the school green house where roses were growing. They were happy of their first win. "I thought Team Ichimatsu's faces were hilarious when they admitted their defeat," said Ichigo "it served them right for being rude to us". "It like I told you Amano," said Makato "defeating them was the way to pay them back". "It's a good thing that you realized last night that we had to change the cakes to make them become one with each other Amano-san," said Sennosuke "if it wasn't for your sense of taste and imagination, we would have lost". "I agree with that" said Satsuki. "Me too" said Makato. The spirits agreed too. "Well I did say that I wasn't going to let you boys down during the cake grand prix" smiled Ichigo.

Just then Ichigo took out a small plastic box from her bag and gave it to Satsuki. "Place one piece each of our cakes into the box and place on your dad's grave as an offering," she said "we will be happy to know that you had succeeded on making a rose cake". Satsuki understood Ichigo's feelings and accepted the box. When Ichigo and the boys tried the cake, they couldn't stop going at it. "This cake brings back many happy memories of when my family and I played at a park all the time together" said Ichigo. "Yes," said Satsuki "this also brings back a happy memory I had with my dad when he was alive". "I think it's the rose scent that makes you remember things of the past" said Sennosuke. "Yeah because they say that scents can stimulate memories" said Makato.

Ichigo suggested that they both needed to thank Satsuki's dad for bringing the rose water to Satsuki. "Hanabusa-kun was able to make a wonderful rose cake thanks to the flavour of the rose water". "It is actually thanks to you Ichigo-chan" said Satsuki, and he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Both the spirits and Makato and Sennosuke were surprised by that. "What are you doing Hanabusa?!" shouted Sennosuke. "Hey you!" shouted Makato "love against team members is forbidden!" Makato and Sennosuke were cross of Satsuki for doing that, probably jealous. Satsuki just shrugged of their reactions. Ichigo on the other hand just sat there blushing and said nothing.

Makato was still cross with that, and Sennosuke noticed it. He reckoned that Makato liked Ichigo, but he couldn't bring himself to admit it.

So the first round of the cake grand prix was done, and there was still more rounds to go.

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><p>Don't worry; it will be a Makato and Ichigo couple story.<p> 


	17. Patissiere showdown

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Patissiere showdown<strong>

One evening, Rumi and Ichigo were buying some snacks in the convenient school. There was a french test coming up and they were buying snacks to eat while they studied. "You better not let your guard down, just because you passed the first round Ichigo" said Rumi. "Yes I know that there is still more to go," said Ichigo "but one thing else that I mustn't let my guard down is my school studies. The cake grand prix may be on, but that does not mean that I have to neglect my school studies, and it's thank goodness that I managed to squeeze in school studies when I practiced for the first round". "I'll say," said Rumi "you would have been in trouble if you didn't". "Well let me tell you something Rumi," said Ichigo "a boy at my old school, who was in the baseball club, actually neglected his school studies one time. And he was warned that if he continued doing that, he would be thrown off the baseball club". "Goodness, did he make up for it?" said Rumi. "Yes he did," said Ichigo "but our teacher warned all of us to never neglect school studies no matter what you are or what you're doing. And I've had that warning in my head ever since".

Just then a girl huffed Ichigo as she walked past. The girl's name was Erika Hayami, and she was in group F the lowest rank of the class. "It seems Hayami still doesn't like you Ichigo" said Rumi. "It's true; I've tried to befriend her ever since I entered this school, but she walks off when I try to speak with her," said Ichigo "and I believe it's because that I am group A even though I'm not at the same level yet as the sweets princes. It's bad enough though to have group B bullying me about it". "But you work really hard to keep up with the princes;" said Rumi "and your school grades are excellent". "Yes that's true" said Ichigo. Ichigo did get very good grades for school work. "Don't you listen to what other students think of you," said Rumi "the sweets princes are happy with you in their group, and you work to keep your position in group A". Ichigo was happy to have a good friend like Rumi.

Next day the class was making cookies and icing to go on top. Makato asked Ichigo to colour the icing, and Ichigo coloured it pink. "You make icing well" said Makato, placing the icing into an icing bag. "I learnt how to make the perfect icing before I could walk" replied Ichigo.

Just then group F was getting comments from Ameya-sensei. They had burnt the cookies and Erika just said that she nothing to do with it. "Those guys are slacking off again" said Chocolat. "In my opinion, that group isn't even trying to make good sweets" said Café. Ichigo couldn't understand Erika; Erika was the smartest girl, with high school grades, and yet she wasn't concentrating on sweets very much.

Next day the students were getting the test results back from the french test they had yesterday. Erika got a 95% on her test, which Ichigo was impressed with. Ichigo got an 89% on her test, which made her happy; Ichigo always got marks between 70% and 90% on school ever since she went through fifth grade. She couldn't bear going lower than 70%.

That evening Ichigo was doing homework and she had a tiramisu with her. Tiramisu was an Italian coffee-flavoured dessert. Ichigo always made sweets for her-self to eat as snacks while she studied. She had made almond macaroons, Mont Blancs, short bread biscuits, strawberry mousses, brownies and chocolate chip cookies for snacks during her time at St Marie Academy. "I'm glad you make snacks when it's studying time," said Vanilla "it gives me more chances to send the cards to the queen". "How many cards have you sent to the queen Vanilla?" asked Ichigo. "I don't know," said Vanilla "I've sent so many I've lost count". Ichigo chuckled. "Never mind," she said "at least it proves that both you and I are working hard for our dreams". Vanilla agreed.

Just then Rumi turned up to start on her homework too. "Say Rumi," said Ichigo "why does Hayami only do excellent work on her studies, but not on making sweets?" "Well to be honest, she wasn't always like this," said Rumi "truth is last year she was in group C". "Really?" asked Ichigo "then how did she drop three levels then?" "I don't know the full details, but she messed up during the finals last year," said Rumi "and because of that her attitude towards making sweets had changed. She worked very hard on sweets when she was in my group, and she was cheerful too". Ichigo couldn't understand why things had gone like this for Erika, but she wanted to find out why.

Ichigo tried to talk to Erika again the next day, but she just kept on ignoring her. Another thing; Ichigo found out how lazy the other members of group F were. The boys Matsumoto, Sakata and Nakamura were the irresponsible, lazy, selfish type and they believed that learning to make sweets for themselves was pointless. "Of all the laziest slackers I've ever heard about, they're the worst" said Vanilla. "I agree," said Ichigo "no wonder Hayami doesn't care about making sweets now, especially with a group like that. I would probably be like that too if I was placed with them". Ichigo also found out that Erika was planning to withdraw from St Marie Academy. She thought it would be a pity if Erika did leave St Marie Academy, so she decided to do something about it.

Next day Ichigo challenged Erika to a patissiere show down. The sweets princes brought Erika to the cooking room. "Why are you challenging me Amano?" asked Erika. "I've been wanting to talk to you all day, especially when I heard that you planned to quit St Marie Academy," said Ichigo "but you had just been ignoring me like I was bad luck, so this was the only way that I could actually talk to you". Erika got mad. "I know fully well that you don't like me because I was placed with group A," said Ichigo "but I don't understand myself why Henri-sensei placed me in group A". "We don't understand this either," said Makato "especially as Amano still has things to learn". "But she has worked very hard and she has more heart for her sweets than us princes put together," said Sennosuke "and she comes up with great ideas for creations". Erika was surprised with this; she didn't really know much about Ichigo herself.

The challenge was for Ichigo and Erika to make chiffon cakes. Chiffon cakes were light sponge cakes, made with flour, sugar, eggs, and baking powder, but they were made with vegetable oil, instead of butter, and you had to mix beaten egg whites in the batter. Ichigo decided to make an orange chiffon cake (made with orange zests) and Erika decided to make a lemon chiffon cake (made with lemon zests). The sweets princes watched Erika carefully and they saw that she indeed knew how to make sweets well. She made no flaws and knew exactly what she was doing with the batter. After the cakes were put into the oven to bake, Ichigo and Erika made icing to go on top. Ichigo made orange icing and Erika made lemon icing. Flavoured icing was made with icing sugar and with juice instead of water.

The cakes were soon baked. "You make brilliant sweets," said Ichigo "so why do you not concentrate on making sweets in class?" Erika explained that she had enjoyed making sweets ever since she was a child, and she was happy when she enrolled into the school last year. But on the day of the examinations she got a cold and fever. "Even though I was sick I still participated in the exams, but because of my sickness I dropped my cake onto the floor. And so my score went downhill and I ended up into the group F when I was promoted to year 2. But even so, I wanted to continue to work hard". "I know," said Ichigo "and I understand that. But it's not easy for you is it being in a group with Matsumoto, Sakata and Nakamura and all" "I envy you Amano," said Erika "not because you were placed into group A, but you had friends with you by your side". "I want to be your friend Hayami," said Ichigo "and let me tell you something; I didn't come here to show off, but to work hard to become a patissiere like my grandma did before me. And the only way for you and your group to work hard on the sweets is that you have to speak up to them more. I always have to speak up to Kashino when he doubts me, because he doesn't trust me often because of what Koshiro did in the grand prix last year. So speaking up for yourself will help you and your group succeed". Erika looked into Ichigo's eyes and saw that she was indeed a good person and hard worker.

After the cakes were cooled, Ichigo and Erika iced their cakes and Ichigo placed pieces of candied oranges on hers, and Erika placed pieces of candied lemon on hers. Vanilla made recipe cards of the chiffon cakes and sent them to the queen. The sweets princes enjoyed both their cakes and decided to call it a draw, and Ichigo and Erika agreed with it.

After that Erika and Ichigo became good friends with each other. Erika got her group to work more by giving them orders, and the boys did as they were told under her orders. Their next sweets were given a good mark this time. So Erika didn't withdraw from St Marie Academy after all.

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><p>I don't understand you know why in the anime cartoons the main character is usually not brilliant on school studies very much. Ichigo should have spoken up more in the anime.<p> 


	18. The bitter Kashino household

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>The Bitter Circumstance of the Kashino Household<strong>

Today's school day was finished and all the students were going back to their dorm rooms. Ichigo was getting jitters while holding text books in her arms. Tomorrow was a final exam. "I hate it when it comes to the final exams," Ichigo said to Rumi "it always makes me feel jittery". "I understand;" said Rumi "the finals are not always the best to look forward to. Still we both studied hard for it". "You're right we have" said Ichigo. "I hope you have studied hard for it Amano" said a voice; it was Makato. "I hate to have the A-group getting a deduction of high marks because of you". Ichigo got cross. Makato was a student with very high marks and he had been a top student ever since he entered St Marie Academy. But it didn't mean, to Ichigo, for Makato to look down on her with school studies. "Listen to me Kashino you sadist!" she shouted "I have studied a lot for these finals thank you, and my grades are good as well thank you. And just because you are an A+ student, that does not mean you can just put pressure on me so there!"

Ichigo was so cross she wasn't concentrating on the stairs and she ended up slipping down the stairs and hurting her head. Makato saw the commotion, picked up Ichigo, and quickly took her to the nurse's office. Sennosuke and Satsuki heard of Ichigo's accident and they went to the nurse's office to see if Ichigo was all right. Ichigo was okay, but she did have a bump on the head and she had some plasters on her face. The nurse suggested that Ichigo should go to a hospital to have her head checked. The sweets princes agreed and they offered to go to the hospital with Ichigo.

They were soon on the bus to the hospital. "You guys didn't have to come," said Ichigo "I could go myself". "Its fine Amano-san" said Sennosuke. "Besides you are our teammate Ichigo-chan" said Satsuki. "You should be careful Amano" said Makato. "It was your fault that I fell down the stairs Kashino," said Ichigo "you got me cross by being a sadist". Makato got cross by that comment. "Now, now calm down" said Sennosuke. They soon reached the hospital; it was a big hospital. Makato stayed outside, while Satsuki and Sennosuke went into the hospital with Ichigo.

The inside of the hospital was massive as well, and Ichigo and Satsuki and Sennosuke were waiting in the waiting room. "Why did Kashino stay outside?" asked Ichigo. Sennosuke and Satsuki explained that this hospital was owned by Kashino's family; in fact everyone who worked here, doctor and nurses, are related to the Kashino family. "Kashino-kun actually told me once that his parents were doctors," said Ichigo "he even told me that only his uncle was a chocolatier". "It's true," said Sennosuke "and there is something else you should know about".

Before Sennosuke could tell Ichigo about something, a nurse told Ichigo that the doctor was ready to see her now. Ichigo saw a female doctor and explained about her slipping down the stairs and hitting her head. The doctor had a feel on her head to check for any bumps. "It doesn't look or feel serious," said the doctor "but I'll x-ray your head to check". While Ichigo was being checked she noticed that the doctor looked like Makato. "Please excuse me doctor," said Ichigo "but are you a relative of Makato Kashino?" "Oh so you know my son Makato?" asked the doctor. Apparently she was Makato's mother. "Yes I'm a classmate of his at St Marie Academy" answered Ichigo. The doctor frowned when she heard the words St Marie Academy. "I wish that boy will come to his senses, quit that school and come back home to be what he's supposed to be" she said.

Ichigo couldn't believe what Makato's mum just said; the way she said that was like she didn't want Makato to be a chocolatier. When her examination was over, Ichigo told Satsuki and Sennosuke what Makato's mum said. "Is she against Kashino of attending St Marie Academy?" "Yes," said Satsuki "in fact everyone in the family is against Makato of being a patissier" The boys explained that when Makato was born he was supposed to become a doctor like everyone else. "But Kashino didn't want to be a doctor, he wanted to be a chocolatier like his uncle is" said Sennosuke. "Kashino told me that before actually," said Ichigo "he also told me that he's only close to his uncle and not any other member of the family". "That is true," said Sennosuke "and Kashino did manage to get permission to attend St Marie Academy, but the condition was that he had to always be on the top of everyone, and if he didn't he would be forced to quit it at once". Ichigo was not happy about this. "It's stupid though;" she said "the one who decides on Kashino's future is Kashino himself, not the family". "We agree," said Sennosuke "but it's that type of family I'm afraid". Ichigo felt sorry for Kashino.

Suddenly Chocolat turned up. "Something bad has happened" she said. "What's happened?" asked Ichigo. Chocolat explained that while they were waiting outside, a car came up. Then a man in a black suit grabbed Makato, placed him in the car and then drove off. "Do you know where they were going?" asked Ichigo. "There was a woman there too, and Kashino said that was his older sister" said Chocolat. "Then my guess is they are going to where Kashino lives," said Sennosuke "I know where Kashino lives because I've visited it before". "We should hurry" said Chocolat. Everyone agreed, and they left the hospital to Makato's house. "I take it his sister is against him being a patissier too?" asked Ichigo. "I'm afraid so" said Sennosuke. Ichigo thought this was really ridiculous.

Makato lived in a big mansion; his family was wealthy. Right now Makato was tied up in bandages and his sister Miyabi wanted to talk to him. "I know what you are going to say sister," said Makato "but I am not going to be a doctor. I am going to be a chocolatier like our uncle". "I remember that you used to play at the man's store all the time when you were younger," said Miyabi "but he was adopted into the Kashino family by a marriage. As the first born son it is your destiny to be a doctor like everyone else".

At that time Ichigo and the others arrived at Makato's house. Ichigo was surprised with how big the mansion was. "So how are we going to get inside?" asked Satsuki "I mean I doubt they are just going to let us inside". "Who goes there?" asked a voice. The voice belonged to man named Muraoka and he was a servant to Miyabi. "What are you doing here?" "We are Makato Kashino's friends," answered Ichigo, bravely, "we know that his sister kidnapped him and brought him here, and we are not leaving until we see him". Muraoka could see that Ichigo was indeed a friend of Makato's, as she had come to bring him back to St Marie Academy". So he let her and Sennosuke and Satsuki in.

Meanwhile Miyabi was still trying to persuade her brother to become a doctor instead of a chocolatier. "The family will accept you as a doctor, but they won't accept you as a patissier," she said to Makato "you will be alone". Just then Ichigo and the others entered the room. "That's enough!" shouted Ichigo "what kind of sister are you, persuading her own brother to do something against his will". "Amano, what are you doing here?" asked Makato. "Rescuing you of course" said Ichigo. She turned to Miyabi. "What is wrong with Kashino being a chocolatier? He is happy with making chocolate. I've watched him make chocolate lots of times, and he enjoys doing that especially when it comes to tempering with chocolate; he tempers it non-stop during practice. Seriously if status and duties are the only things this family cares about then it's no wonder Kashino is only close with his uncle and no one else in this family, and I don't blame Kashino for that". Miyabi stared at Ichigo. 'This girl shows no fear,' she thought 'and she cares about Makato's feelings'. "Since you have no idea of how delicious Kashino's chocolate is, I suggest you try one of his chocolate cakes" said Ichigo. "Hey Amano" said Makato. "Okay I will," said Miyabi "but if I don't like it Makato will have to quit St Marie Academy".

"Why did you ask my sister to try my chocolate Amano?" asked Makato, who was not pleased with this. "Have you forgotten about what you told me once Kashino?" said Ichigo "action speaks the truth better than words. So it's obvious you have to make a chocolate cake to prove to your sister about your desire to be a patissier". "For once I agree with Amano" said Chocolat. Makato sighed; he couldn't argue against Ichigo and Chocolat. "What cake are you going to make Kashino?" asked Sennosuke. "The opera cake," said Makato "my sister loves the opera cake". So Makato got to work on making an opera cake, and the others helped out too. Satsuki and Sennosuke explained to Makato about Ichigo's results in the hospital, and Makato was relieved to know that nothing was wrong.

Soon the cake was done and Makato presented a piece of the opera cake to his sister and his sister tried it at once. "You are a lot different from when you were little Makato" said Miyabi, after she tried the cake. Miyabi explained that when Makato was little he would cry all the time from loneliness because their parents were always so busy all the time. Ichigo, Satsuki and Sennosuke were amazed to know that Makato used to be a cry baby. "But now you have found your own path and you have made many new friends. And I find your cake delicious". This meant that Miyabi accepted the cake and Makato was allowed to go to continue studying at St Marie Academy. Chocolat made a recipe card of the opera cake and sent it to the queen.

Before Makato and the others left, Miyabi explained that Muraoka was her fiancée. "My parents probably won't accept it," said Miyabi "but I will fight to obtain my true happiness". She also asked Makato to make her wedding cake for her in the future, and Makato agreed to. Then Makato and the others left on the bus back to St Marie Academy. "I can't believe that your parents don't accept your choice of wanting to become a patissier Kashino" said Ichigo. "They're that type of parents," said Makato "and even if I presented a cake of mine to them, they would still not accept my dream and they would try to make me give up on it". Now Ichigo really felt sorry for Makato; it wasn't nice having parents like that. "But I am going to keep on staying as top student, win the grand prix and study in Paris" said Makato.

Those words made Ichigo remember the finals test that was tomorrow. "Make sure you pass Amano" said Makato. "I may have bumped my head, but I haven't suffered from amnesia for the finals thank you Kashino" replied Ichigo.

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><p>I know I said that Ichigo isn't a klutz in this story but having her slip down the stairs was the only way I could have her go to the hospital.<p> 


	19. Happy Valentine

**I do not own Yumeiro Patissiere**

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><p><strong>Happy Valentine<strong>

Miya Koshiro was spying on Makato like usual; her crush on Makato was so big she would spy on him like a stalker. "This valentine's day I will make you some chocolate that will prove my love to you Makato-kun" she said. Last year her chocolate cake didn't turn out good; she hadn't baked the cake properly and she made the sauce too thick. So this time Miya was determined to make perfect chocolate. At that moment she saw Ichigo walking up to Makato. She was still jealous of Ichigo being in the same group as Makato. "Amano Ichigo, I will not lose to the likes of you" she said.

That day Ichigo and Rumi were shopping for ingredients to make chocolate for Valentine's Day. Rumi had a boy named Takuya and it was a long distance relationship because he lived far away from St Marie Academy. Ichigo was going to make chocolate for her dad; Shigeru got chocolate from Ichigo ever since she five and he loved it when she gave him chocolate. Ichigo had also decided to make chocolate for Satsuki, Sennosuke and Makato. They had been good friends of hers ever since she attended the school and they had helped her learn new things too, so her chocolate would be thank you gifts for them.

Just then Miya, along with Satou and Shiyotani, showed up and they too were buying ingredients to make chocolate. "Oh so you are going to use the discounted couverture chocolate to make your valentine's chocolate?" Miya asked. "Why?" said Ichigo "are you buying high-quality expensive stuff like usual?" "Of course," replied Miya "I'm going to buy the highest quality couverture chocolate directly from France. You get high quality love like that, while you get cheap loved from the discounted couverture chocolate". Ichigo was not happy with Miya's answer. "Cheap stuff or high quality stuff doesn't matter when it comes to love," said Ichigo "what matters is the feelings you put into while making chocolate for your friends and loved ones. Is like when you're buying a present for someone; it doesn't matter on the cost and it is the thought that counts. And anyway you can make good chocolate and any other sweets without using any high quality ingredients".

Miya wasn't satisfied with Ichigo's words. "Is that so?" she said "then why don't you and I challenge each other to a chocolate making competition". "What?" asked Ichigo. "Chateau Seika is holding a party on Valentine's Day," said Miya "so you and I can hold our valentine's chocolate competition there. The guests can pick out which chocolate is better. And as this is a competition between us girls, you are forbidden to have help from the sweets princes, especially Makato-kun". "All right I accept your challenge, and I can make my own chocolates myself" said Ichigo. "I look forward to Valentine's Day then Amano" said Miya, and then she, Satou and Shiyotani left.

That evening, Ichigo was thinking about what chocolate she should make for the party. "That Miya Koshiro gets on my nerves sometimes," she said to Rumi "I mean she keeps on going about the high-quality ingredients being the most important. But I've had sweets that weren't even made from high-quality ingredients before and they are still delicious". "I know," said Rumi "but she's one of those shows off type of people who believe that bigger is better. But anyway are you going to be all right with this competition Ichigo?" "Don't you worry Rumi, I'll beat Koshiro and show her that the low-quality stuff is just as good as high quality stuff" said Ichigo. "That's the spirit" said Rumi, and then she went to sleep.

Vanilla asked Ichigo if she had a dress to wear at the party. "Actually I do have one, but it might be a bit plain" said Ichigo. She got out a pretty pink and white dress, which had a ribbon round it, from her wardrobe. "Mum got me this for my birthday last year, what do you think?" "That does look nice, but it needs some adjustments to it" said Vanilla. "I think so too, but I don't have the time to do that," said Ichigo "I need to think about the chocolate I'll be making for Valentine's Day". "Okay Ichigo" said Vanilla. 'You leave the dress to me'.

Next day Miya told the sweets princes about the party Chateau Seika was hosting on Valentine's Day. And she told them about the chocolate competition that she was challenging with Ichigo. "I hope you come to the party" she said to the boys, giving them their invitations. When Miya left the classroom, Sennosuke and Satsuki asked Ichigo if she would be all right on her own with the competition. "Don't worry; I can make my own chocolates myself" said Ichigo. Makato warned Ichigo that there would probably be people who are famous at the party, so plain normal chocolates wouldn't be much suitable for the party. Ichigo knew that Makato was right, so she had to plan her chocolate right.

Meanwhile Miya was taking care of her chocolate; although Satou and Shiyotani was taking her orders like ordering the finest chocolate from France for her, and any other things. "My victory is as promised," said Miya "my high presentation of high-quality chocolate will easily over win any chocolate that Amano will make".

At that time Ichigo was thinking about what chocolate she should make. Just then Rumi entered the room with the chocolate she had made for Takuya. When Ichigo tried one she discovered how minty and refreshing they were. Rumi explained that Takuya was in the middle of studying for his entrance exams for high school, so her chocolate would give him a message of good luck and do your best. That made Ichigo remember what Valentine's Day was really about, and that was pouring your feelings into the chocolate for your friends and loved ones. She thought of an idea for her chocolates at once and got to work.

Soon it was the night of the Valentine's Day party. Miya's father was the host and he hoped that everyone would enjoy themselves. All the guests were there including the sweets princes. The sweets spirits were there too to watch the party. Caramel explained that Sennosuke got two cardboard boxes full of chocolates from the girls, and Café explained that Satsuki had three cardboard boxes full of chocolates. Chocolat explained that Makato got none, because making chocolate for Makato would have just been like sending him a declaration of war as Makato's an expert of chocolate.

Just then the chocolate competition was announced. An announcer introduced Miya and Ichigo to the guests. Miya was in a pretty red and purple dress and she looked like a Georgian princess. Ichigo was wearing her dress, but it looked different now. Vanilla had made adjustments to the dress; she added a pink collar on the neckline of the dress, added a bow for the front of the dress and she made it look more frilly. Miya's chocolate was presented first. Satou and Shiyotani brought in a golden fountain that had golden cupids and a golden heart for decoration. "Let me present to you my chocolate fondue" said Miya. 200 kilos of the highest-quality couverture chocolate from France poured out of the fountain like a waterfall. There were strawberries, orange pieces, pineapple pieces, banana pieces, marshmallows and other things to go with the chocolate. The guests found the chocolate delicious, even the sweets princes thought it was delicious. Miya was confident for sure that Ichigo's chocolate wouldn't beat her chocolate fondue.

But Miya was wrong; Ichigo's chocolate became popular as soon as they were presented. Ichigo had made three different batches of chocolates. The first batch of chocolates had a powdered green tea topping and a purple flower and three white balls on each of them. They were black sugar flavoured chocolates. The second batch of chocolates had orange edible ribbons and they looked like presents. They were black pepper flavoured chocolates. The third batch of chocolates was pink coloured and they had red hearts on top. The guests were enjoying them at once. They were rose tea flavoured chocolates. "Wow Ichigo, your chocolates are a big success" said Vanilla. "You're right," smiled Ichigo "oh and thanks again for fixing up my dress". "No problem," said Vanilla "at a party like this you should wear a pretty dress". She made recipe cards of Ichigo's chocolates and sent them to the queen.

Just then the princes came to try Ichigo's chocolates. "Did you make all of these yourselves?" asked Sennosuke. "Yes I did" replied Ichigo. She had Satsuki try her rose tea flavoured chocolate, Sennosuke her black sugar flavoured chocolates and Makato her black pepper flavoured chocolates. The boys liked them at once. "My chocolates are based on you three;" said Ichigo "rose tea for Hanabusa, black sugar for Andou and black pepper for Kashino. You three have helped me a lot during my time at St Marie Academy so my chocolates are to say thank you from me". A lot of men adored the black pepper flavoured chocolate and the women adored the rose tea flavoured chocolates. Miya couldn't believe that Ichigo's chocolate was popular; she still didn't believe that low-quality sweets were just as good as high-quality sweets.

Soon it was time for the results. The results turned out to be a draw; both Ichigo and Miya got 139 points. Miya couldn't believe and thought this was a joke. But everyone agreed that Miya's chocolate fondue and Ichigo's different flavoured chocolates were both delicious, so it was declared a draw. "Don't get too confident Amano," said Miya "I will be bringing out my true ability in the cake grand prix. Prepare yourself". "And you prepare yourself too," said Ichigo "because I won't be backing down in the cake grand prix either".

Soon it was time for dancing. Miya wanted to dance with Makato and she asked him if he voted for her chocolate. Makato explained that he voted for Ichigo because he felt the feelings of gratitude from her from the chocolates. "Your chocolate was more delicious than last year, but I didn't feel anything feelings from your chocolate" he said. Miya couldn't believe that Makato didn't vote for her chocolate, but she was happy that he still found her chocolate delicious. She wanted to dance with Makato right now, but he managed to trick her into dancing with her dad instead.

At that time, Ichigo was admiring the dancing. 'This is like in the movies and stories' she thought. Just then Satsuki asked her to dance with him. Ichigo never danced before, but she accepted. Thanks to Satsuki, Ichigo managed to do quite well with dancing. Then it was Sennosuke's turn to dance with Ichigo, and last of all it was Makato's turn. "You must have thought a lot to come up with your chocolate right?" said Makato. "Well I must admit," said Ichigo "when I tried to think of a chocolate for you Kashino I just kept on remembering bitter memories. And then I somehow ended up holding onto black pepper". "Oh really huh?" said Makato "but I would like to try it again".

So this Valentine's Day turned out to be a good one. Rumi gave her chocolates to her boyfriend Takuya, Shigeru got chocolates from Ichigo and Ichigo had a good time at the party.

* * *

><p>I know that Vanilla made the dress in the anime, but I did say there was going to be changes during the story, so I had Vanilla just change Ichigo's dress a bit. Let me warn you; there will be a lot of changes during the chapters about when Team Ichigo vs Team Koshiro.<p> 


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